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THE 



TRAGEDIES 



SOPHOCLES: 



IN ENGLISH PROSE. 



THE OXFORD TRANSLATION. 



NEW EDITION, REVISED ACCORDING TO THE TEXT OF DINDORF. 



LONDON : 
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 



MDCCCXLIX. 









^ 



PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, 
LONDON OiiZKTTE OFFICE. ST. MARTIN'S LANE. 



PREFACE. 



The chief aim of the publisher in the present volume, was 
to furnish an improved reprint of the Standard Oxford ver- 
sion, without depriving the original work of those featm-es 
which have ensm'ed its favourable reception in both Univer- 
sities. 

To carry out this view, the editor has carefuly revised the 
translation throughout, adhering closely to the text of Dindorf, 
which is now universally established, and is adopted by our 
public examiners. In a few cases, the corrupt state of the 
original has rendered a different course necessary, but every 
departure from the received text has been pointed out at the 
foot of the page. 

The version has, where possible, been made more literal, 
especially as regards the choruses ; and many words and 
particles, before indistinctly rendered, have, it is hoped, reco- 
vered their force and meaning. 

Arguments before each play, and a brief introduction have 
been added, and the notes have been considerably augmented. 
These additions are distinguished by the initial of the present 
editor. 

THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY. 
Cheist Church, Oxfokd. 



INTRODUCTION'. 



Sophocles, son of Sophilus, was born at Colonus, a deme 
of Attica, B.C. 495. His father was of a good and wealthy 
family, and so careful of the education of his son, that at 
the age of sixteen he gained prizes for music, his instructor 
being the celebrated Lamprus. About the year B.C. 468. 
when the bones of Theseus were removed by Cimon from 
Scyrus to Athens, -^schyius and Sophocles were competitors 
in the tragic contests, which would seem to have been the 
first appearance of our poet in the character of a dramatist. 
Sophocles obtained the first prize, and ^schylus departed for 
Sicily. The beauty of his appearance, and his gracefulness 
of demeanour increased his popularity, but a weak state of 
voice, and delicacy of lungs prevented his progress as an 
actor. In 440 B.C. the "Antigone" was produced, and to the 
sagacity of the political precepts therein delivered, he is said 
to have been indebted for his appointment as one of the 
colleagues of Pericles. 

In old age Sophocles vras considerably engaged in public 
duties, being priest to the hero Alon, and likewise a prohoulos 
or commissioner, upon the fatal termination of the Sicilian 
expedition. He subsequently connected himself Math the 
aristocratic views of Pisander, and was concerned in forming: 
the council of four hundi-ed, with which fell the old constitution 
of Athens. This conduct he was accustomed to defend upon 
the plea of expediency. 

In consequence either of a family jealousy, or of his too 
great attention to dramatic affairs, he was at length, at an 

^ The materials of this memoir are chiefly derived from Lessing, as 
epitomized in the " Theatre of the Greeks." ch. v., p. 72. 

h 2 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

advanced age, charged with dotage and incapacity of con- 
ducting his family affairs, by his son lophon. It is said that 
he gained the favourable suffrage of his judges by reciting the 
newly finished tragedy of the "QEdipus at Colonus," but 
chronological difficulties render this story doubtful. His 
death took place at the beginning of the year 405 B.C. either 
from, over exertion in reading, or from suffocation by a grape 
during the Anthesterian festival. He was buried at Decelea, 
the family's burying-place, but not before the pennission of 
Lysander was obtained, the place then being in possession of 
the Lacedemonians. The number of his genuine dramas 
probably amounted to 113. 

The truckling and inconsistent character of Sophocles was 
evinced even in the politics of his plays, whilst in private life 
he was rather the agreeable companion than the practical 
moralist. Still, a dignified gentleness, and a contented sim- 
plicity pre-eminently distinguished him, while his whole life, 
as his writings, exhibited an unruffled composure, almost 
amounting to indifference. 

Only seven plays and some comparatively unimportant 
fragments of this author have survived the ravages of time, 
but we have been fortunate in obtaining at least four of the 
best among the few which have been preserved, viz. the 
" Philoctetes," " Antigone," and two " CEdipi^" The con- 
nection between the last three plays, though remarkable, was 
not the result of previous design, as the " QEdipus at Co- 
lonus" was exhibited four years after the death of the author, 
by the younger Sophocles, and the " Antigone," posterior to 
it in point of historical time and events, was 'produced 440 
B.C. as above mentioned. Still they should be read in the 
order which the natural sequence of circumstances demands. 

We cannot perhaps better employ the present opportunity, 
than by briefly sketching some of the chief characters of these 

1 But Schlegel, p. 100, enumerates the ''Antigone/' "Electra," and 
two " CEdipi " as those most approved by the ancients. 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

plays, in connection with such critical remarks as naturally 
arisen 

The " CEdipus Kex" is the most complicated and artfully 
sustained of extant Greek plays. From the first few lines, 
whei-e Oedipus appears as the heaven-bidden prosecutor of 
the regicide of old, to the last stroke of fatal evidence, that 
dooms him to self-courted ruin and despair, we are continually 
kept in alternate doubt, fear, and hope. At one moment the 
denunciation of the seer is contradicted by the seeming in- 
consistency of predestination, and the very cause of that hope 
presently turns to be the damning proof of guilt and pollu- 
tion. Nor is this dreadful process of fatalism less fearfully 
realized in the accidental expressions unwarily let di'op by 
(Edipus. Thus when he imprecates cm^ses upon himself. 
" Yea, on myself, if conscious of the deed, 
I grant the wretch asylum in my home 
The same dread curse, in all its vengeance, fall! " 

Tiresias afterwards charges him : 

*' Ha! Is it thus .' Nay, then, I tell thee, king ! 
Adhere to thine own edict; from this hour 
No more hold converse or with these or me. 
Thou ai-t the sole polluter of our land." 

The impetuous spirit of CEdipus breaks forth, and he 
accuses the seer and Creon of caballing to drive him from the 
thi-one. Jocasta seeks to appease the quarrel, and thereby 
becomes instrumental to the sad discovery of the truth. The 
death of Polybus gives a momentary respite from anxiety, 
and (Edipus almost equals his mother-wife in scepticism. 
But here again the wild determination of (Edipus works out 
his doom. In a paroxysm of agony, Jocasta would suppress 
the tidings .she knew too late, but CEdipus compels the mes- 
senger to recount the whole tale, and then madly confesses 
how fearfully the ancient curse of the gods was brought to 

1 In this task I shall partly avail myself of the remarks of Schlegel, 
Lect. vii. p. 100—110, and Bulwer's "Athens," book v. ch. 4. 



VMl INTRODUCTION. 

pass. The vain attempt to escape from fate, and the thereby 
falling into the performance of what he strove to avoid, reminds 
us of the complete and beautiful story of prince Agib in 
the Arabian Nights^ Both tempted futurity, and became 
murderers ; both sought for knowledge which they were 
warned was dangerous, and both suffer sadly for their curiosity. 

Among the subordinate characters of the piece, that of 
Jocasta is the most painfully drawn. Her arrogant levity and 
confidence almost breathe the ruin darkly hinted at by the 
chorus, and we feel that the curse of " blindness of heart" is 
upon her. She is moreover selfish in her very affection for 
CEdipus. His anxiety for the dying people she shares not. 
Her religion is a blind belief of convenience, and she would 
even charge the mistakes of human seers to the blindness or 
inconsistency of the gods. Of her late husband she has so 
little thought, that the personal resemblance of GEdipus never 
occurs to her''. " The questions concerning his death awaken 
no regrets, in short, she is as bad a widow as Steele could 
depict, even in the " Funeral." Her death is fraught with 
no words of tenderness for her infant children, but is the deed 
of a wild, unholy frenzy. CEdipus, on the contrary, toils out 
his term of woes, and meets death with manly composure. 
Though stem in his hatred towards his imdutiful sons, his 
daughters claim his tenderest regard. In his wanderings, 
amidst beggary and wrretchedness, a byeword for the scoffer, a 
proverbial vagabond, he is still " every inch a king." His 
philosophic moderation is shown at the beginning of the 
" CEdipus Coloneus," where he tells us how sufferings, and 
lapse of time, and native nobleness had taught him to deem 
the beggar's pittance enough. 

In this play, it has been well remarked that the poet ap- 
pears as the panegyrist of Athens. And this is evident from 

1 See the " Story of the third Royal Mendicant," vol. I., p. 183—5. 
Lsme's translation. 

2 See Schlegel, p. 102. 



INTKODUCTION. IX 

the very commencement, where the description of the Furies' 
grove, so praised by HumboldtS and the subsequent character 
of Theseus, mark the power of the poet to blend local and 
picturesque with political interest. As the waters of the 
Ilissus were consecrated by the mystic love-lore of Socrates, 
so was the silent Cephisus made solemn by the last sojourn of 
Oedipus whilst living. To the Lacedemonians nature was but 
the rude element of strife, their land was dear to them as a 
safeguard in war, not sweet with the remembrance of those 
who taught peace and cherished the arts of life. But to the 
Athenian's mind art had made nature a subject of contempla- 
tion, philosophy had associated nature with nature's causes, 
and religion had interwoven place with thought, and sancti- 
fied each village, stream, or grove, with the remembrance of 
the days when the gods walked the earth. The " CEdipus at 
Colonus" could teach how the earlier ages of Athens retained 
a holy simplicity, when the rights of the suppliant or herald, 
though in an evil or forlorn cause, were equally respected : it 
could show reasons for hero worship, and from the glory of 
the past could awaken the listlessness of future generations. 
In short, Theseus, himself mythical, was the connecting link 
in political theory between the mythical and the real. His 
character possessed the glories of the one blended with the 
probability of the other. 

In this play we find the character of Creon, which was of 
but little importance in the " King CEdipus," ripened into 
the tyrannical and arbitrary disposition, which ascends to its 
highest pitch and subsequent fall in the " Antigone." Still, 
in all the three plays, Creon is but instrumental to the deve- 
lopement of other characters and the progress of the story. 
As in the first play, he brings out the petulant disposition of 
CEdipus, and excites that curiosity which is to lead to the 
fatal discovery — as in the " Antigone" he is but a foil to set 
forth the mighty spirit of the heroine, so in the CEdipus at 
* Cosmos, vol. II. p. 377 of Bohn's editicm. 



X INTKODUCTION. 

Colonus he leads to the generous intervention of Theseus, 
and hastens to bring gradual ruin upon his own house and 
city. Furthermore, it was necessary that QEdipus should be 
tried to the fullest extent, in order that his gloomy fatalism 
might be thoroughly enhanced. Hence his paternal feelings 
are aroused to love, by the seizure and subsequent restoration 
of his daughters, and to hatred, by the intervention of the 
repentant but ill-fortuned Polynices. 

The same remark applies to the selfish and insipid Ismene, 
who is twice placed in contradistinction to the warm-hearted 
and principled Antigone. Her position in the present play is 
but preparatory to her ripened selfishness in the third of these 
continuous dramas. 

It has been objected that the self-justification of (Edipus in 
this play is inconsistent with his despair in the first. But 
time, long-sufiering, and the consciousness that an end of 
troubles was at hand, might well nerve the hapless old 
king to a sense of his unmerited woes. Moreover, 'tis in 
human nature to retort upon an unworthy accuser, though the 
charge be true. If Creon was the champion of rapine and 
tyranny, the good king of old times could ill plead his own 
unworthiness to such an accuser. 

We now come to the Antigone, a play almost as popular 
in modem times, as celebrated in antiquity. There can be 
little doubt that the character of Antigone is the gem of the 
Athenian stage ; she is, as Bulwer observes, the " Cordelia 
on whom GEdipus leans — a Cordelia he has never thrust from 
him." Her patient affection bears with the peevish com- 
plaints and desolate poverty of her father, and, at his death, 
her feelings of duty are transferred to the fulfilment of her 
brother's last entreaty. He had gone forth the predestined 
victim of the fight; his corse lay desecrated, and fear re- 
strained all from bestowing even a handful of dust upon the 
unhallowed dead. True to her promise, and reckless of the 
tyrant's mandate, Antigone dares to do the deed of piety. 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

and seeks not to deny or excuse it. She has determined 
to encounter death itseK on behalf of the dead. Neither 
the dissuading words of her timid and selfish sister, nor 
the hope of a royal marriage with a loved object, can retard 
her resolution. She is the victim of a good principle, as 
Creon is of a bad one. With him selfish aggrandizement is 
the main spring of action — with Antigone, to have forgotten 
self, is to have gained all things. She mourns the sun-light 
which is to be closed from her for ever, but finds a gleam 
of hope even in the murky dens of Hades. She has no fears 
for the future, and her spirit rises above the petty affections 
that bid her cling to life. Her magnificent and daring de- 
nunciation of Creon' s boasted laws, and her sublime descrip- 
tion of the eternal, unwritten code, sealed only in the tablets 
of time, is powerfully contrasted with her tender address to 
her dead relatives, and the swan-like dirges in which she 
bewails her untimely fate. 

I may here take notice of the opinion relative to verse 572, 
which many commentators still assign to Ismene. Surely, if 
only upon grammatical grounds, the reply of Creon is sufficient 
to show that Antigone must have uttered the ejaculation: 

" O dearest Hsemon, how thy father wrongs thee! 

A sudden burst of feminine tenderness is in nowise incon- 
sistent with the Grecian heroine. If Ismene had uttered it, 
we should feel at some loss for so sudden a warmth on the 
part of this young lady, who is generally as passionless and 
insipid as the best genteel comedy heroine of modern times. 

It may be doubted whether the frequent success of Men- 
delssohn's " Antigone," with which Mr. Donaldson is some- 
what merry in his clever and amusing preface, might not 
have proved instrumental in reviving a taste for the classic 
drama. But there is so general a deficiency in modern actors 
and audiences, that unless a sentiment is accompanied by a 
storm from Costa's band, it has little chance. Still, we even 



Xll INTRODXTCTIOTT. 

wish that " Antigone" had been made a musical study for 
Viardot and Marini. 

With some apology for this digression, we turn to the minor 
characters of the piece. Of Creon we have already spoken, 
but we may further observe the superstition to which, despite 
his boastful sternness, he is subject. Tiresias, who had in a 
manner befriended him when (Edipus was living, can hardly 
command respect while present : but immediately he departs, 
the iU- omened words of his prophecy weigh hea^'ily on the 
mind of the king, and he timorously obeys the advice of the 
chorus, and hearkens to those whom he had spurned with 
threats. 

The character of Haemon seems to have been framed to 
please the popular ear. He is a true Athenian pleader. 
Utility is his excuse for justice, justice the available conse- 
quence of utility. The voice of the people must be respected — 
and this is the burthen of his speech. But although his argu- 
ments are scarcely solid, yet they are suited to the hearer, and 
are likely to prevail, where religion and tenderness would have 
little weight. Besides, there is much modesty and dutifulness 
in the first part of his address, and his devotion is fully shown 
in the catastrophe. His turning upon his father, sword in 
hand, was a mistake of the poet. Attempted parricide, how 
great soever the provocation, was an imnatural and revolting 
anticlimax to his previous behaviour. 

The "Electra" naturally foUows the "Antigone"' in a 
critical consideration of ethical developement. Both Electra 
and Antigone appear in behalf of the wronged dead, but in 
Electra, love has been sharpened into keen hatred, tenderness 
to a deceased father has hardened into vindictive wrath against 
his murderers, and Electra is a virago almost bereft of female 
feelings. There is, however, a selfishness in her grief that 
distinguishes itself from the noble and disinterested daring of 
Antigone. Constantly mourning her own misfortunes, her 
grief for her father is but for the sufferings his death has brought 



I-ymODUCTION. Xlll 

upon herself, her hopes of Orestes but the expectation of safety 
and comfort in lieu of desolation. The mind of Antigone 
glows with youthful impulse, chastened by matured principle, 
while Electra exhibits little else than the accumulated bitter- 
ness of continued years of misfortune. Even her mournings 
at the supposed death of Orestes teem with selfishness, while 
the consciousness that she is "unmarried, ather age," is almost 
ludicrously dwelt upon at every opportunity ! 

Bulwer has rightly observed that the interest excited by 
the splendid description of the chariot race and of the pretended 
death of Orestes, is lessened by the knowledge that it is a 
feigned story, and the appearance of Orestes excites little 
interest, because we are fully prepared for it. 

The catastrophe of the play, like that of the Choephor83 of 
-^schylus, is bold and animated, but the death of ^gisthus has 
too much of deliberation. Nevertheless the cool, deathly pur- 
pose of Orestes is replete with the retributive terrors of divine 
justice, and the death of the murderer in the very place of his 
own crime was a necessary sacrifice to the notion of an aven- 
ging deity and mindful fury. Orestes is the very embody- 
ment of this principle, but his character is drawn with less 
strength than in JEschylu». 

Clytemnestra is not the Clytemnestra of -^schylus, she lacks 
the tact and boldness of the heroine of the " Agamemnon." 
She here appears rather as the sophistical sensualist, striving 
to supply the want of truth by violence, and yielding to super- 
stition and impiety at the same moment. Nay, the Clytem- 
nestra of ^schylus has certain qualities almost commanding 
respect. Her bold energy and haughty indifference to conse- 
quences equal the mad devilry of Lady Macbeth, but in 
Sophocles Clytemnestra is scarcely a tragic character. Her 
paltry and sophistical reasoning with Electra renders the 
abuse with which it is accompanied almost contemptible. 

The "Trachini^" is, dramatically speaking, the worst of 
the existing plays of Sophocles. Its beauties lie in the feminine 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

gentleness of Deianira, and in occasional strokes of poetry in 
the choruses. The character of Hercules is light, vindictive, 
and contemptible. 
_„;::n5We now arrive at two plays, the heroes of which have been 
repeatedly compared with one another, viz., the "Ajax " and 
'* Philoctetes." And yet the catastrophe in both is different. 
Ajax is led to death by despair resulting from disappointed 
ambition and revenge. It is not the frenzied despair of a 
Jocasta, but the deliberate despondency that a series of annoy- 
ances have wrought in a sensitive mind. Like Cato, he 
almost reasons himself into suicide, but, unlike him, he has 
no sublime hopes of futurity to gladden the act. The tender 
and soothing character of Tecmessa fails to soften his stem 
determination, but the sight of his only son gives occasion to 
one of the noblest bursts of parental tenderness found in any 
dramatic work. Still there is a selfishness in the honourable 
character of Ajax. He dares not, for his wife and child's sake, 
endure the shame, and face the enemies, to which he was to 
leave them subject. Trifling as is the character of Teucer, 
there is a Avarm and healthy generosity, and useful intrepidity, 
that, though less heroic, is more estimable than the feverish 
passion of Ajax. 

Of his concluding farewell Bulwer observes : — " It is cha- 
racteristic of the Greek temperament that the personages of 
the Greek poetry ever bid a last lingering and half-reluctant 
farewell to the sun. There is a magnificent fulness of life in 
those children of the beautiful HeUas ; the sun is to them as 
a familiar friend ; the affliction or the terror of Hades is in 
the thought that its fields are sunless. The orb which ani- 
mated their temperate heaven, which ripened their fertile 
earth, in which they saw the type of eternal youth, of sur- 
passing beauty, of incarnate poetry, — human in its associa- 
tions and yet divine in its nature, — is equally beloved and 
equally to be mourned by the maiden tenderness of Antigone, 
or the sullen majesty of Ajax." 



INTEODUCTION. XV 

Philoctetes is the very contrary to Ajax, yet, to use the 
■words of Schlegel, " if Ajax is honoured by his despair, Philoc- 
tetes is equally ennobled by his constancy." "Without the 
comforts, without the practical ingenuity of Defoe's hero, he 
is the classic Robinson Crusoe, and spends a long lapse of 
years amidst birds and beasts, vrhose only friendliness was in 
providing him with food. The tortures of disease, and the 
rankling remembrance of Grecian ingratitude cease not to 
harass him, yet his mind rises superior ; and, as Winkelmann 
observes, Philoctetes, like Laocoon, " suffers with the sup- 
pressed agony of an heroic soul never altogether overcome 
by his pain^" 

In perfect simplicity and clear dramatic construction this 
play almost deserves the encomium of an ingenious scholar, 
who styles it the *' masterpiece of the Athenian stage^." There 
is so perfect a unity of events, and so consistent a prosopopmia^ 
that we are never shocked by incongruity. Well has Bulwer 
asserted, that "the character of Neoptolemus is a sketch 
which Shakespeare, alone could have bodied out." With aU 
his natural generosity and honour, he is still easily persuaded — 
but, when once aroused to shame, his better feelings remain 
fixed and immoveable. The simple taking away and restoring 
of the bow and arrows is at once the test of his character and 
the incident of the play. If anything can be found fault 
with, it is the entry of the god at the conclusion of the piece- 
But this was necessary to preserve the consistency of Phi- 
loctetes in his hatred of the unworthy Greeks, to aid the 
interests of the generous Neoptolemus, and — to finish the 
play. 

I have but one more remark to make, and that is directed 
against the extraordinary idea of Wunder, judiciously dis- 
regarded by Hermann, that verses, particularly in the 
Trachinia3, were often added by the performers. I am per- 
fectly aware that Garrick, John Kemble, and Macready have 

1 Schlegel, p. 109. 2 ^j.^ q^ Burges, pref. to Philoctetes. 



XVI , INTRODUCTION. 

sucessively appeared as the re-modellers of Shakespeare 
or Beaumont and Fletcher : but I believe their efforts were 
generally directed to popularizing the plays they altered. 
Now, if this end could be answered, by adding unintelligible 
verses, I have nothing to say. If not, Wunder had better 
seek to amend or explain the many passages he cannot under- 
stand, than adopt that easiest of all critical edge-tools, the 
pruning knife. Wunder is an able interpreter, an ingenious 
man, and a correct Grecian. But, for the histrio-critics of 
the Greek Drama — we have about as much belief in them, as 
in the comic powers lately attributed to the guard in the 
'* Antigone," after the joke had lain concealed for rather 
more than two thousand years ! 



ffiDIPUS REX. 



ARGUMENT OF THE (EDIPUS REX. 

CEdipus was reproached with being the suppositious child of Polybus, 
the kin^ of Corinth, and in disgust exiled himself, and went to Thebes. 
Here he solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and as a reward received the 
kingdom, and the hand of the queen Jocasta in marriage. A long 
plague ravaged Thebes, and, on Creon being sent to Delphi, the mur- 
derer of Laius, the former king of Thebes, was denounced as the cause 
of the evil. In h?s anxiety to discover tho mar(?t;i'5r, and through the 
statements of Tiresias, corroborated by tnose of certain old servants, 
CEdipus made the fearful discovery, that he had been exposed in child- 
hood, to avert an awful prophecy, which he had unwittingly fulfilled 
in the murder of his father Laius on his way from Corinth to Thebes, 
and in his subsequent cohabitation with his mother Jocasta. Jocasta 
hung herself, and CEdipus in despair tore out his eyes. B. 



(EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 



DRAMATIS PERSONiE. 



CEdipus 
Priest^ 
Creon. 
Chorus oe Aged Thebans. 

TiRESIAS. 



JOCASTA. 

Messenger.. 
Servant os Laiu&. 
Messenger extraordinary. 



Q^DiPUS. My children, youthful generation of Cadmus of 
old, what can be [the meaning of] these sittings ye are 
thronging'^ hither before me, decorated with suppliant 
branches? whilst the city is at the same time fraught with 
incense- offerings, and at the same time with both paean- 
hymns and wailings. Which things, I thinking it my duty 
not to hear from others, and those messengers^, my childi'en, 
have myself come hither ; I, (Edipus, styled by all* the Illus- 
trious. But, aged man, say, since it naturally becomes 
thee to speak on behalf of these, in what mood ye stand 



^ Arrian, ap. Stob. S. 97. 28» hints that both the CEdipi were per- 
sonated by Polus, a distinguished actor, of whom Gellius makes mention, 
7. 5. ' 

2 The word "thronging" takes in both the ideas usually applied to 
this word. Wunder takes it merely to mean " silting, occupying," and so 
Buttmann, Lexil. sub voc. Cf. ^sch. Suppl. 595. Others render it 
''hurrying." The word is probably akin to 9o6g. See Erfurdt, and 
Liddel's Lexicon. B. 

2 So Wunder, quoting Eur. Orest. 531, ri [xaprvpcjv aXXwv clkovuv 
del fi a y' kaopdv Trdpa.. This corresponds to the Latin exegetical use 
of adeo. But perhaps dXXwv is merely redundant in opposition to 

aVTOQ. B. 

■* From the position of Traai it might not be improper to translate 
" the all -illustrious," with a construction like that of v. 40. See also 
CEd. Col. 1446. Tr. — This verse might more poetically be rendered, " I, 
CEdipus, by all illustrious hight." It is condemned by Wunder as spu- 
rious. B. 



2 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 11—30. 

affected; bearing, or earnestly seeking; since I would wil- 
lingly give you every succour; for I were unfeeling not to 
compassionate a meeting such as this. 

Priest. But, O (Edipus, thou who rulest over my country, 
us indeed thou beholdest, of what ages are we who sit as 
suppliants before thine altars here' ; some of us not yet of 
strength to wing our flight afar ; others priests weighed down 
with old age, I myself the priest of Jupiter; and these other 
chosen of the youths : but the rest of the populace decked 
with branches, is seated in the market-places, and near both 
the shrines of Pallas, and at Ismenus' ashes of divination^. 
For the city, as thou thyself behold, is now over-roughly 
tossing, and from the depths of the bloody surge can no 
longer lift her head ; withering in the ripening husks* of the 
soil, withering in the pasturing herds of kine, and in the yet 
unborn labours of women: and the fire-bearing god, most 
hated pestilence, having darted down, ravages the city; by 
whom the house of Cadmus is made empty, but dark Hades 

^ I have preserved the participles, to make the translation of this 
awkward passage more clear. After the remarks of Wunder, it seems 
evident that Seiaavreg denotes the fear which led these suppliants, arip- 
jHV, to seek for assistance. As arspyeiv is used to denote a passive 
content or satisfaction (see Blomf. on ^sch. Prom, ii.), so it may pass 
to another signification, by which we are said to seek those things which 
we should be pleased to have. In CEd. C. 518, we find (rrkp^ov explained 
by 7rei9ov immediately following, which is just the reverse of the present 
sense. Otherwise, we might render the passage : " are ye fearing an im- 
pending, or enduring a present evil ?" (So St. Gregory, Horn. i. in. Ev. 
§. 1, " Ex quibus profeeto omnibus alia jam facta cernimus, alia e prox- 
imis Ventura formidamus.") Some may regard this as a frigid antithesis, 
but (Edipus, like Puff's hero in " The Critic," does not ask for infor- 
mation for himself, but for the benefit of the audience. B. 

2 The altars alluded to were of various deities, placed by individuals 
before their houses, as patriotism or private gratitude might dictate. See 
the Curculio of Plautus, I. i. 7 ; Arist. Wasps, 875. 

^ **Both the shrines." Minerva had a temple at Thebes in virtue of 
her name Oncsea, and another as Ismenia, which latter name Apollo also 
bore, and presided over an altar of burnt sacrifices. 

* I have here followed Wunder. iyKapTroig must mean the corn just 
ripened, but blighted at the very moment of bursting, Trepl alrov £/c/3oX?)v, 
in Thucyd. iv. 1. Soon after the epithet ayovoig does not mean " abor- 
tive," but "unborn," owing to the strength of the mothers failing. 
Wunder appositely compares Herodot. vi. 139. Compare also Seneca, 
(Edip. Act i. sc. 2, v. 33, nay, the whole description. B. 



30 — 64. (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 3 

grows rich with wailings and groans. Now I and these 
youths here are seated petitioners by the house, deeming thee 
not equal to the gods, but of men the first, whether for the 
casualties of Hfe, or the interventions of the gods. Who 
indeed, when thou wast come to Cadmus' capital, didst put 
an end to the tribute of the stern chauntress, which we were 
furnishing : and this too neither knowing nor taught by us, 
any strange knowledge^ ; but by the prompting of god thou 
art reputed and believed to have righted our condition. Now 
too, head of (Edipus, owned most potent by all, we implore 
thee, all prostrate here before thee, to find some help for us, 
whether thou, by hearing the voice of any god, or from any 
human source, knowest such: since to the experienced I 
observe even the issues of their counsels to be the most 
flourishing. Go, best of mortals, re-establish the state, go, 
take good counsel; since at present indeed this our land 
celebrates thee as its preserver for thy former zeal — and may 
we in no wise remember thy reign for our having both re- 
gained our footing and afterwards fallen; but raise up this 
our city in safety. For as with propitious augury thou didst 
render to us the former lucky service, so in the present 
instance be equal [to thyself]. Since if in sooth thou wilt 
govern this our land, as thou dost sway it, it is a fairer thing 
to rule it with its men, than desolate. For neither tower nor 
ship is aught, if destitute of men dwelling therein. 

CEd. My children, objects of my pity, you have come 
wishing for things known, and not unknown to me ; for weR 
am I aware that ye are all sickening^, and sickening though 
ye be, there is not one of you who sicken equally with me. 

1 ttXeov cannot mean " anything further," i. e., than the bare fact of 
the riddle proposed, as the translators have supposed: but TrXeov elSsvai 
is a form peculiarly applied to the possession of occult knowledge. So in 
Nicolaus Damascenus^ from a M.S. in the Escurial, fol. 3 A, 6 BafSvXu)- 
VLOQ, ei £{] Ti wXeTov to. Qua tidu)g, cvfj-jSoXXeL n)v rov oveipov (prjijiijv. 
And of Joseph's skill in dreams, Clemens Alexandr. Strom. V. p. 245, 
38. v'iov TovTov Z,r]XwaavT(.Q ot d^fX^ot, ttXuov ti 7rpoopa»jU£vov Kara 
Triv yvuxTiv. B. 

2 " Diseased " is certainly literal, but an equivocal term is required to 
express the bodily disease of the people, and the "hearts' aching" of 
QEdipus in his despair. I think "sicken" better expresses this double 
sense of voghv than "disease." Others render it by "being dis- 
tressed." B. 

B 2 



4 (EDIPUS TYKANNITS. 65—89. 

For your affliction falls on one alone, in his own person and 
on none other ; while my soul sighs at once both for the city 
and for myself and for you. So that ye awake me not indeed 
slumbering in repose, but know that I already have shed 
many tears, have traversed many paths in the wanderings of 
thought ; and that only mode of cure which I had discovered 
by careful scrutiny, that have I put in execution. For Creon, 
the son of Menoeceus, my kinsman by marriage, I despatched 
to the Pythian shrine of Apollo, to enquire by what deed or 
word I might deliver this city. And the day being already 
commensurate with the time [for his return], pains me for 
his fate, since beyond reasonable expectation he is away a 
longer than the due period. But whenever he shall have 
arrived, that instant I were a villain not to perform to the 
full all that the god may reveal. 

Pr. Nay, thou hast both well said, and these too just now 
signify to me that Creon is approaching. 

OEd. Hear, king Apollo, for O that he may have come 
with some saviour fortune at least, even as he is sparkling 
of eye. 

Pr. If one may guess, however, he is welcome ; else would 
he not be coming hither, his head thus amply wreathed with 
all-fruitful laiu-eP. 

CEd. Quickly shall we know, for he is within reach of 
hearing us. Prince, my relation, son of Menoeceus, what 
report from the god comest thou bringing to us? 

Creon. Good: for I assert that even our giievances, should 
they chance to have their issues aright, might be altogether 
fortunate'^. 

OEd. But of what purport is the oracle'? For I am neither 

* The laurel crown, say the commentators, was the privilege of those 
'^quibus Isetse sortes obtigerant." Chremylus in the Plutus, however, 
will hardly allow the "Isetae sortes " to be his lot, though his slave wears 
the chaplet. 

* A purposely dark answer, breathing the true Loxian spirit. 

3 Gr. tariv Se iroXov tovttoq', Quid hoc sermonis est? Br. ''What 
mean thy words?" Dale. 'Ettoc is emphatically an oracle, and morever 
the expression t<^ yt vvv \6yi^ would be a mere repetition, if Brunck's 
translation were correct. In the same passage the opposition of Qpaavg 
to Trpo^aiaag gives confirmation to the distinction made between Qpdaog 
and OdpcTog, audacia and fiducia. Tr. — I prefer " emboldened " to 
** rashly sanguine." B. 



89—111. CEDIPirS TTKANNUS. 5 

emboldened, nor yet prematurely alarmed, at least by thy 
present speech. 

Cr. If thou choosest to hear while these are by, I am 
ready to tell thee, or else to retire within doors. 

(Ed. Speak out to all, for I endure more suffering for these 
my people than even for mine own life. 

Cr. I will say what I have heard from the god. King 
Phcebus openly enjoins us to expel from the country a^ pol- 
lution, as 'having been bred in this our land, nor to foster 
what is incurable. 

(Ed. By what kind of purification? What is the manner 
of the evil? 

Cr. By banishing, or requiting death with death, since the 
following bloodshed troubles the state^. 

(Ed. Why, of what manner of man does he indicate this 
fate? 

Cr. We had once, king, Laius as the sovereign of this 
land, ere thou didst regulate this state. 

(Ed. I knew him by hearsay, for I never as yet saw him 
at least. 

Cr. This man having perished, Apollo now clearly gives 
one orders to punish his assassins*. 

(Ed. But where on earth are these same? Where shall be 
discovered this track of an ancient crime, hard to con- 
jecture? 

Cr. He said, in this land. But what is searched for, is to 
be got at, while that which is unregarded escapes. 

^ This is much more correct than '*^the pollution." It was as yet 
unknown what the pollution was, as is evident from the enquiry of CEdipus : 
Tig 6 rpoTTOQ rrjg ^v/juipopag; which has been wrongly taken to mean, 
" what is the method of averting the calamity?" B. 

2 rod' alfia xft/i«Cov ttoXlv. Although the translator has not ventured 
to render this otherwise than Erfurdt, Hermann, and Elmsley have given 
it, i. e. as an accusative absolute, and with the word rode referring to 
something subsequent, he has still a doubt whether ecrrt might not be 
understood, and the passage construed thus: "Since this is a case of 
bloodshed troubling the city." The answer of CEdipus will then run 
thus : " How so ? for of what manner of man," etc. : but it haidly seems 
natural that CEdipus should interrupt one who indicated (as is done by 
toIe, according to the critics) his purpose of immediately proceeding to 
specify the murder. Tr. — Another translation has " since this blood is as 
pernicious as winter to the city." B. 

^ But see my note on v. 140. B. 



6 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 112—140. 

(Ed. But is it in the house, or in the field, or in another 
land, that Lams encounters this bloody death? 

Cr. Quitting home, as he told us, to consult the oracle, he 
never returned home, as he had departed. 

CEd. And was no messenger, nor partaker of his journey, 
a witness to this, from whom gaining intelligence one might 
have used it? 

Cr. No; for they are dead, except one mdi^'idual, who 
liaving fled in terror, could tell for certain nothing he saw, 
but one fact. 

CEd. Of what nature that fact? for one thing might find 
means to learn many, could we lay hold of but a slender 
foundation of hope. 

Cr. He said that robbers, having encountered him. slew 
him, not by the valour of one arm, but with a number of 
hands. 

GEd. How then would the bandit, had there been no tam- 
perings by bribes from hence, have reached such a pitch of 
audacity as this? 

Cr. This was suspected; but amid disasters there came 
forward no one as the avenger of Laius now no more. 

GEd. But what kind of distress interfering, when the 
monarch* had thus fallen, checked you jfrom sifting out this 
matter ? 

Cr. The Sphinx, mysterious songstress, compelled us to 
look to that which was before our feet, having abandoned 
vhat was obscure. 

CEd. But from its first cause will I bring it to light again. 
For right worthily has Phoebus, and worthily hast thou set 
on foot this present examination in the cause of the deceased : 
so that deservedly ye will see me also your abettor, avenging 
at once my land here, and the god. For in behalf, not of 
my more distant friends, but myself of myself, shall I dis- 
perse this pollution. Since whoever it was that murdered 
him, he might perhaps wish to^ take vengeance on me too 

' I prefer taking Tvpavvidog as abstract for concrete, with the old 
translation. B. 

2 This is certainly the usual sense of rijuwpav. But "Wunder thinks 
the sense of " slaying" or " killing" more suitable, and thinks that in 
V. 105, x^'-P'- TiiJLOjpelv conveys the like idea. Granting, as I do, that 
this sense is more suitable (and I think defensible) in the present passage. 



141 — 162. (EDIPUS TYRANXUS. 7 

with like hand. In supporting his cause, therefore, I advan- 
tage myself. But with what speed ye may, my children, da 
you on your part arise from off your seats^ taking up these- 
branches of supplication; but let some one else assemble hi- 
ther the people of Cadmus, since I purpose to take every 
step. For we will prove ourselves either with heaven's aid 
prosperous or undone. 

Pit. My children, let us rise; since even for the sake of 
those things^ this man promises, came we hither. But may 
Phoebus, who has sent us these divinations, come with them 
both a deliverer and as an healer to our sickness. 

Ckorus. 

O sweetly-speaking oracle of Jove, why canst thou have 
come from Pytho stored with gold, to illustrious Thebes? I 
am on the rack in my timorous spirit, quivering with dismay, 

healer, Delian, Psean, awfully anxious about thee, as to 
what matter thou wilt bring to pass for me, either at once, or 
hereafter in the revolving seasons. Tell me, thou child of 
golden hope^, immortal Voice. First I invoke thee, daughter 
of Jove, immortal Minerva, and thy sister, protectress of our 
soil, Artemis, who* sits enthroned on her glorious circling 
chair in the market-place, and far-darting Apollo: oh, be ye 

1 am even more certain of v. 140, where, in tovq avrosvraQ X^'-P'- 
Tij-noptlv we have " death for death" implied in an almost proverbial 
manner. So ^sch. Choeph. 312, avrl de TrXrjyrig ^oviag ^ov'iav 
Tl\riyi)v TIV8TU). dpcKjavri TraOelv Tpiyspojv jivOog rdde (pLovu. Cf. Eum. 
2«4. B. 

^ When the request was granted, the suppliants took up the boughs, 
which they had previously laid on the altar, and departed. See VVun- 
der's 1st Excursus on v. 3. B. 

2 For £^ayy£XXerai, "promises," cf. Eurip. Heracl. 531. TLa^ay- 
y'cXKQf.iai QvrjaKEiv aSiiX(poJv Tujvde Kcijxavrrig 'v7Ti.p. B. 

2 Dr. Spillan has rightly seen that Fame has nothing to do with the 
matter, ^dp.a is the voice of the oracle here invoked. The construc- 
tion of KtKkonEvog soon after (for which the translator read KEKXofjLsviit) 
is well defended by Wunder. B. 

■* There is much difficulty about the epithet tuKXka, which, if considered 
as the Epic accusative for svicXed, violates the metre. Respecting the 
epithet of Artemis, 'EvkXeiu (whence Brunck and Elmsley read EvicXia), 
see Wunder, and Pausanias i. 14, and ix. 17. On the many meanings 
assigned to KrKXoevra, see Wunder. The most plausible seems to be Dr. 
Spillan's : " the seat encircled by the forum." B. 



8 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 133—186. 

timely present to me, three several averters of destruction, if 
ever, in the case of a previous calamity also hovering over my 
country, ye thoroughly exterminated the flame of mischief, now 
too come ; ye gods, for I suffer incalculable miseries ; nay, my 
whole people to a man is sickening ; nor is there amongst us 
a weapon of precaution, wherewith one shall defend himself; 
for neither do the productions of our celebrated* soil thrive, 
nor in childbed do our women recover from their poignant 
throes'; but one upon another mightest thou see, even as a 
well-fledged bird, more fiercely than uncontrollable fire', 
speeding towards the shore of the western god*. Jn the un- 
counted hosts of whom the city is perishing, and the deadly* 
generations of men unpitied are lying without a tear (to their 
memory) on the plain ; while among them wives and grey- 
haired mothers withal, some from this, some from that 
quarter, along the rising altar- slope as suppliants, wail sadly 
because of their deplorable afflictions. And clear bursts forth 

1 Brunck says that one codex reads kXvtol, but the plain of Boeotia is 
particularised by ancient writers, and, among others, by Thucydides in 
his preface, for its fertility. Tr. — I should prefer taking KXvrdg as an 
epithet of the earth simply. B. 

2 dvexovai, " bear up with." All the commentators seem to coincide 
in accepting Hesychius's interpretation of iri'iog, as translated. 

^ In the Hecuba of Euripides, the anarchy of a ship's crew is termed, 
Kpehawv irvpoQ., in a similar sense to that given in this translation ; yet 
the second interpretation of the scholiast, " too fast for the (funeral) fires 
though unquenched," derives plausibility from Thucydides' account of 
avaiaxvvToi drJKai, ii. 52. 

^ "Western god." Neminem praeterea novi qui sic Plutonem vocave- 
rit, iropev' 'Ax^povTog clktci Trap' evcrKiov habet Pindarus Pyth. ii. str. 2. 
Videet Antig. 806, 7." Musgrave. In the peroration of Lysias' Oration 
against Andocides in this passage, " To expiate this pollution," (the 
mutilation of the Hermse,) " the priestesses and priests, turning toward 
the setting sun, the dwelling of the infernal gods, devoted with curses 
the sacrilegious wretch, and shook their purple robes, in the manner pre- 
scribed by that law which has been transmitted from earliest times." 
Mitford, Hist, of Greece, c. xxii. sect. 2. 

^ The reading 9avaTT](p6p(iJ was adopted by all the translators, except 
a recent one, who renders Oavarrjcpopa simply " dead." I have ren- 
dered it by " deadly," for, as Wunder well remarks, contagion ren- 
dered them so, and prevented them meeting with the customary mourning 
and funeral rites. Cf. Seneca, CEdip. 62. " Quin luctu in ipso luctus 

exoritur novus, Suseque circa funus exequise cadunt Deest terra 

tumuliSj jam rogos silvse negant." B. 



1P6— 224. (EDIPUS TYRANNTTS: 9 

the paean anthem, and a sorrow-breathing voice chiming in. 
Wherefore, O golden daughter of Jove, send thine aid, fair 
of aspect, and make the ravening Mars, who now unarmed 
with brazen shield rushing on with loud roars, scorches me, 
to turn his back in homeward hurrying flight, an outlaw from 
my country, either to the vast grot* of Amphitrite, or to that 
inhospitable harbourage the Thracian breakers ; for, in fine, 
if night have spared a relic, day assails it. Which (Mars), 
O thou that wieldest the sovereignty of the fiery lightning, O 
Jove our sire, blast by thy thunderbolt. Thine in\dncible 
arrows also, O lord of light*, from the golden twisted horns 
of thy bow would I gladly celebrate as champions sent forth 
to our aid, and the fiery torches of Diana, wherewith she 
scours the Lycian mountains : him of the golden mitre, too, I 
call, surnamed of this our land Bacchus Evius, of aspect 
flushed with wine, fellow-rambler of the Msenadse, to approach, 
flaming with beamy pine-torch, upon the god unhonoured 
amongst gods^, 

OEd. Thou petitionest; but for thy petition, if thou be 
willing to hear and receive these my words, and to give thy 
attention to the disease, thou mightest obtain succour and 
alleviation of thy miseries : which words I shall speak as a 
stranger to this tale before us, a stranger to the crime com- 
mitted. For I by myself could not trace the matter far, un- 
less I had some clue: but now, seeing that I am enrolled 
among our citizens* a citizen of latest date, to all you Cad- 
maeans I make proclamation thus® : Whatsoever man of you 

^ OaXafiog I have rendered "grot," which seems more poetical than 
** bower," '• bed," or "chamber," when applied to Amphitrite. B. 

^ The old word Xvkii or Xvkoq, (whence, probably, the Latin lua^,) 
forms XvKocpvg and XvKafiag. The latter word occurring in Apollonius 
Rhodius, Argon, i. 19S, first suggested to the translator of this play an 
idea which he is happy to find sanctioned by Maltby's authority, (v. 
XvKSiog,) that even the Sophoclean XvKOKTovog is one, among many other 
fanciful substitutes, for the true origin of this epithet. Tr. So also 
Muller, Dor. ii. 6, § 8; but I should prefer retaining "Lycian King." 
Cf. ^sch. Sept. c. Th. 145. B. 

3 d-KOTi^og, Pindar, Pyth. ii. 80, 
Tovov v7rep(piaXov, 
Mova, Kai }i6vo%', ovt iv av- 
Spacxi yf pa(T<p6pov, ovt iv Oeoiv vofiolg. 

^ Elmsley and Wunder read c'njrog for acrrbg, which seems preferable, B. 

' v7ri^6Xu)v TovTriKXTjixa, " crimen confitendo diluens." Elms. " Con- 



10 CEBIPUS TYRANNUS. 225 — 253. 

chancer to know of Lams son of Labdacus, by what man he 
fell, him I command to make full confession to me. And 
whether he fears, as having to divulge from concealment the 
impeachment himself against himself; let him, seeing he shall 
suffer nothing else unwelcome, but shall quit the country un- 
harmed ; or whether on the other hand, any one have known 
another^ from another land as such, let him not be silent as to 
the assassin, for his reward I will pay, and gratitude shall 
accrue to him besides. But if, on the contrary, ye shall be dumb, 
and any one apprehensive either on his friend's account, or 
even on his own, shall reject my words, ye must needs hear 
from me what I shall do hereafter. I prohibit any one of this 
land, of which I wield the powers and royalties, from either 
receiving or accosting, from making a communicant with 
himself of either vows or sacrifices to the gods, and from 
apportioning the lavers of holy water to this man, whoever 
he is : but'* I command that all thrust him from their homes, 
as this man being the defilement upon us, as the Pythian 
oracle of the divinity has just now revealed to me. Such an 
ally then am I both to the deity and the mortal who is dead. 
But I imprecate on the perpetrator, whether he have escaped 
detection being some single person, or with more, that, evil 
doer as he is, he may in evils drag out an unhappy existence. 
But should he be an inmate in these my halls with my know- 
ledge, I pray that I may suffer the very penalties which I 
have just now invoked on these. But on you I strictly impose 
the performance of all this, both on my own behalf, and of 

ditum promens." Hermann; who quotes the Electra, 1411, where the 
scholiast's interpretation is plainer than his own ; and Eurip. Hipp. 629. 
(ed. Monk,) where Monk says, "huncversum forsan omitti potuissecen- 
suit Valkenserius;" and where the idea of draining silently off, seems 
as apposite as conditum promens, when applied to oKftov Sioixdriov. In 
the 4th book of Thucydides, c. 83, the better authorities have vireKs' 
XeXv, for vTrtltXBiiv ra Suva, which is most aptly rendered " to remove 
out of the way." The reader must choose between the note and the 
text, which follows Hermann. Tr. "Wunder's interpretation, derived 
from Matthiae, is as follows : " et si metuit (sc. viiibv rig iravTa (ri^nai- 
vtiv IjjLoT) crimen caedis, cujus ipse reus sit, surripiat, sive subterfugiat, 
et in terram peregrinam abeat; nullum enim alia patietur malum." 
Elmsley's view seems simplest. B. 

1 Wunder approves of emendation of Nevius, xspoc for x^f^^'OQ- But 
Vauvilliers more neatly proposes, aarbv, 77 '^dWrjg x^ovog. B. 

2 KeXsvio must be taken from the preceding cnravSio. B. 



254—285. CEDIPTJS TYRANNUS. 11 

the god, and of this our land, thus without its fruits and 
without^ the gods brought to decay. For not even if the 
matter had not been taken up by the god, ought you in rea- 
son to leave it thus unatoned, when the best of men, and 
your m'onarch, had perished, but thoroughly to sift it : but 
now, since it is I who possess the authority which he held 
before, who possess too his bed, and the same wife to raise 
up seed; and since a common offspring to his in common 
would have been of her born, had not issue unhappily failed 
him, whereas now fate has fallen violently on his head ; for 
these causes I will thus do battle for him, even as it were 
mine own father ; and will resort to all means in seeking to 
take the doer of his murder to the son of Labdacus, and of 
Polydorus, and of earlier Cadmus, and of the ancient Age- 
nor ; and for those who fail to perform these orders, I pray the 
gods to allow to spring neither seed-crop to them from their 
land, no, nor children from their wives ; but that they may 
be wasted away by their present doom, and by one yet more 
hateful than this. But to you the other Cadm£eans, unto as 
many as these designs are acceptable, may both the friendly 
power, Justice, and all the gods' weal, be present evermore. 

Ch. Even as thou hast involved me in a curse, thus, O 
king, will I speak: for neither was I the slayer, nor have I 
power to disclose that slayer. But this same question it was 
the part of Phcebus who gave the message to have it declared, 
namely, who on earth has done the deed. 

(Ed. Thou hast rightly spoken. But to compel the gods to 
that which they shall not be pleased to do, could no man have 
power. 

Ch. I would fain suggest the second step after this which 
occurs to me. 

(Ed. Nay, even if there be a third, see thou omit not to 
give it utterance. 

Ch. I know that king' Tiresias most especially has insight 
into the same things with king Apollo, from whom one en- 

1 a9s(Dg, "neglected by the gods." So El. 1181, and below, 661, 
Ittsi d9eoQ d(piXog. . . . bXoifiav. B. 

2 The expression dva^ refers here to the functions of king, priest, and 
prophet, which were united from the earliest times, and which neither the 
Athenians nor Romans, when they abolished the regal power, dared nomi- 
nally to separate, but still retained tbeir titular QaciXtvg and rex 



12 (EDIPUS TYEANNUS. 286—319. 

quiring of these matters, O king, might derive the clearest 
knowledge of them. 

CEt>. But not even this have I managed as a slothful work, 
for I have despatched, at Creon's word, two to fetch him ; and 
long since he moves my wonder by his non-attendance. 

Ch. Well, certainly the other stories are absurd, and stale. 

(Ed. To what purpose these same? for I scrutinize every 
report. 

Ch. He was said to have fallen by some wayfarers. 

(Eb. I, too, have heard so; but the witness of this no one 
knows. 

Ch. But surely, if he possess one particle of fear, at 
least he will not endure hearing such curses as these of thine. 

(Ed. Him who can have no horror of the deed, neither 
will a word overawe. 

Cii. Yet is there one who shall expose him, for those yon- 
der are slow conducting hither the heavenly seer; in whom 
alone of men is the truth innate. 

(Ed. Tiresias, thou who dost contemplate all things, both 
those which may be taught, and those which are unspeakable, 
and those which are of heaven, and those that tread our earth ; 
under what a disease our city labours^ even though thou seest 
not, thou must still be sensible : wherein we discover thee, O 
king, our only protector and deliverer. For PhcEbus, should 
thou be not informed of it by the messengers, has sent word 
in return to us who sent to ask, that release from this our 
present sickly state alone could come, if, having rightly dis- 
covered, we should put to death those who killed Lams, 
or send them into banishment from the land. Do thou, 
therefore, on thy part, grudging us neither response from 
augury, nor if thou hast other way of divination whatever, 
redeem thyself and the state, redeem me, redeem the whole 
pollution of the dead^ For in thy hands we are; but for a 
man to do benefit from such means as he may have and can 
use, is of labours the most glorious. 

Tiresias. Woe, woe, how dreadful to be wise, where it 
cannot pay its profits to the wise. Alas ! for though I knew 
this well, I altogether forgot it, else had I not come hither. 

(Ed. Nay, what is this ? how dispirited art thou come to 
us! 

1 That is, ''all that the death of Lajfus has polluted." 



320—338. OEDIPUS TTRANNUS. 13 

Tib. Dismiss me to my home, for most easily wilt thou 
endure thy doom, and I mine, if thou •wilt be prevailed on by me. 

CEd. Thou hast said what is neither lawful nor friendly to 
this thy country which nursed thee, in depriving her of this 
divulgement. 

Tin. Why, I observe that neither does thy speech proceed 
from thee seasonably ; I do it, therefore, that I may not suffer 
the same evil on my part. 

Ch. Do not, in the name of the gods, if aware of this, be 
averse [to speak}, since we all here, prostrate as suppliants, 
kneel to thee. 

Tie. Because ye are all infatuated : but I \ no, never; 

be it that I may not, by telling my ovm, imfold thy miseries. 

(Ed. What sayest thou r though knowing it, wilt thou not 
give it utterance, but thinkest thou to betray us, and destroy 
the state. 

Tie. I will grieve neither thyself nor thee. 'VMierefore 
dost thou vainly probe these matters ? for never shalt thou 
learn them from me. 

(Ed. What, worst of villains I for thou on thy part wouldst 
enrage the temper even of a stone ; wilt thou never declare it 
at all, but show thyself thus unsoftened and unsatisfying ? 

Tie. Thou hast complained of my ill humour, but thine 
own that dwells vrith thee hast thou not discerned'; yet 
blamest thou me. 

1 "But I J' This is translated after the punctuation of Hermann's 

edition." In his addenda, however, Elmsley considers Erfurdt to have 
correctly interpreted the passage^ the second fxr] to redound, and the 
order to be, tyuj Sk ou jj-rjizore eKcprjvo) (id est, ovttots SK(pavu>) rd era 
KaKa, (jjg av etTTw to. kjid fxavTi-vna-a. "Never imagine that I will 
bring to light thy misfortunes, in order that I may utter my prophecies." 
Tr. Dindorf's text seems unintelligible. B. 

" Hermann considers that Eustathius is right in attributing to these 
words an allusion to Jocasta, and says, that the expression bjxov vaiovoav 
is otherwise useless ; which, however, it would not be, since it contains 
the very reason which gives Tiresias's remonstrance so much force. The 
ambiguity, if any ought to be, is well preserved in these lines : 
Thou hast reproved my warmth, yet little know'st 
What dwells in thine own bosom, though on me 
Thou heap'st reproach. 

Dale's Trans, vol. i. 32. Tr. 
See V. 414, and cf. Nonnus Dionys. xxv, 20, — ifi fSoijcrw 'n.aTpo<p6vov 
TTOtriv via Trapsvvd^ovTa reKovcry. Statius Theb. 1, 68; Si dulces forias, 
et lameutabile matris Connubium gavisus ini. B. 



14 (EDIPUS TYRANXFS. 339—365. 

CEd. I do ; for who would not be incensed at hearing such 
words as those, in which thou now settest at nought this 
city? 

TiR. Why, they will come to pass, even though I suppress 
them in silence. 

(Ed. Oughtest not thou, then, to inform me of at least 
that which will come to pass. 

Tie,. I can tell thee no farther ; whereupon, if thou wilt, 
be exasperate with whatever rage is most ferocious . 

GEd. Ay, on my soul, and I will at least pass over nothing, 
so enraged am I, of what I am apprised of. For, know, thou 
art suspected by me both to have helped engender the deed, 
and to have done it, in all but killing him with thine hands ; 
nay, hadst thou possessed sight, even this deed its very self 
had I asserted to be thine alone. 

Tin. Is it even so ? 1 charge thee to abide by the pro- 
clamation, even that which thou hast promulged, and from 
this day forth to accost neither these present, nor me ; for 
that thou art the unhallowed defiler of this land. 

(Ed. Hast thou thus shamelessly given vent to these words 
of thine, and canst thou possibly expect that thou shalt acquit 
thyself of this ? 

TiR. I stand acquitted, for I cherish truth in its strength. 

CEd. At whose hand schooled ? for surely not from thy 
art. 

TiR. At thine ; for thou hast provoked me reluctant to 
speak. 

(Ed. What manner of speech ? speak again, that I may the 
rather apprehend. 

TiR. Understood" st thou not before, or temptest thou my 
words ? 

(Ed. No, not at least to have termed it intelligible ; but 
say again. 

TiR. I say thou art the murderer of the man, whose mur- 
derer thou seekest. 

(Ed. But in no wise with impunity shalt thou twice at 
least utter taunts. 

TiR. Shall I tell thee, then, one other thing also, that thou 
mayest be the more angered ? 

CEd. As much as least as thou inclinest, since it will be 
said in vain. 



366—392. (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 15 

Tm. I affirm thee to be unconsciously holding the most 
shameful intercom-se with thy dearest friends, and not to see 
in what state of evil thou art. 

(Ed. And dost think thou shalt always say these things 
even exultingly ? 

Tie,. Yes, if at least there be any might in truth. 

(Ed. Nay, there is, save to thee ; but to thee there is not 
this, since thou art blind both in thine ears and thy mind and 
thine eyes. 

Tie. But thou at any rate art viTetched in reproaching me 
with this, wherewith is there not one of these present who 
will not speedily reproach thee. 

(Ed. Thou art fostered by night alone, so that thou couldst 
never do either me or any other, whoever he be, that looks on 
the light, a mischief. 

Tie. For it is not fated thou shouldst fall, at least by me, 
since Apollo is sufficient, whose care it is to accomplish all 
this. 

(Ed. Are these the inventions of Creon, or thine own ? 

Tie. Nay, Creon is no bane to thee, but thyself to thyself. 

(Ed. wealth, and sovereignty, and art surpassing art in 
this life of constant emulation, how great is the jealousy 
stored up among you ! if at least for the sake of this my 
power, which the city reposed in my hands, a free gift and 
not solicited, Creon the loyal, my former friend, secretly 
supplanting me is longing to eject me from it, having 
suborned a sorcerer such as this, a vamper-up of plots, a wily 
mountebank, a wretch that hath eyes only for his gains, but 
as to his art was born blind. For if not, come tell me, 
wherein thou art a true seer ? How didst thou not, when the 
monster of wild song^ was here, pronounce some spell of 

1 T] patpuj^oQ KVMV. A puzzling title to translate ; but the Sphinx was 
all a puzzle, and would have made a great figui-e in these days of Egyptian 
statues and hieroglyphics, particularly as her acted charades were better 
than her spoken, at least they nonplussed the poor Thebans more, being 
of that ancient kind which he who receives aright " had need from liead 
to foot well understand." For the translation, if any one have so much 
of Euripides, or rather Diogenes, in him as to prefer "enigmatical bitch," 
he may find in the poem of Christabelle one of the same breed, and 
most "enigmatical." vv. 2 et seq. Tr. — kvujv is applied to the Sphinx, 
as to the hydra by Eurip. Here. F. 1277, and to the Harpies in Ap >llon. 
13, 289. So Brunck. See also iEsch. Prom. 803. Soph. Electr. 1388, 



16 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 393—416. 

deliverance to these our citizens? And yet her riddle at 
least was not for a chance-comer to expound, but required 
divination, which thou plainly exposedst thyself as not pos- 
sessing, either from birds or known from any one of the gods ; 
but I, when I was come, the nothing-knowing CEdipus, put 
her down, having mastered it by judgment, and not having 
learnt it from birds : I, whom forsooth thou must try to 
depose, expecting that thou shalt stand next in place near the 
Creontean throned To thy cost methinks both thou and he 
that contrived all this will go exorcising pollutions : nay, but 
that thou seemest an old man, to thy cost hadst thou known' 
what manner of things they be thou purposest. 

Ch. As we conjecture, both this man's words and thine, 

CEdipus, appear to have been uttered in passion. But 
there is want not of such words as these, but to consider, but 
how we shall best expedite the oracles of the god. 

TiR. Even though thou art a king, the right of an equal 
reply at any rate must be equally granted to both, for of this 

1 too am master. For in no wise do I hold Hfe as servant to 
thee, but to Loxias, so that I shall not by and by be entered 
under Creon as patron. But I tell thee, inasmuch as thou 
has taunted me with being blind also : thou actually hast thy 
sight, and seest not in what evil thou art, nor where thou art 
dwelling, nor with whom thou art consorting. Knowest thou 
now from whom thou art? Thou art even imaware that thou 
art the enemy of thine own buried kindred, and of those on 

It was probably applied to the Sphinx from her rapacity and robberies. 
See Pausan. ix. 26. Hygin. Fab. Ixvii, or from her participating in the 
form of a dog. Palaephat. de incred. histt. §. 7. B. 

1 On the expression rJJ AajidaKtiq) iraiSi (v. 267,) Brunck has a 
long note from Eustathius, producing two examples from Homer of 
these adjective in eLog, in both of which there seem a certain solemnity 
and state intended to be expressed, which indeed are more palpable in 
these instances from Sophocles : rw Aa^cciKov re Trai^i would not have 
the same force. 

2 Brunck renders " damno tuo cognosceres, quam male sentias." 
This is not satisfactory, the force of the particle Trip being entirely lost, 
unless it be thought implied by "sentias." Since CEdipus appears con- 
fident of the nature of Tiresias' intentions,, may we translate " thou hadst 
known as the sufferer just what thou knowest as the designer," and 
consider it a threat of banishment ; or does oia irlp mean qualia cunque .'' 
Elmsley prints them together^ oZa7r£|0 ; Hermann, separately. 



417—441. (EDIPUS TYRANNirS. t7 

earth above. And thee with fearful steps shall a^ curse both 
from thy mother and thy father, one day, with double stroke 
chase from this land, thee seeing now indeed rightly, but 
then darkness. But with thine outcry what manner of 
haven, what Cithseron, shall not speedily be in unison, when 
thou shalt have become sensible of the marriage into which, 
though void of harbourage, thou hast in thine halls steered 
thy course, happening on a fair voyage-time ? But thou dost 
not feel conscious of a multitude of other evils, which^ shall 
level thee with thy real self and with thy children. Now 
then revile both Creon and my words, for there lives not the 
mortal who shall ever wear himself away more direfuUy than 
thou. 

CEd. And is all this then bearable to hear from this thing? 
Wilt not away to thy death? Wilt not instantly? Wilt thou 
not turn thy back upon these halls, and get thee away again 
in haste ? 

Tin. Nay, I for my part had not come, hadst thou not 
bidden me hither. 

(Ed. I did, because I was by no means aware that thou 
wouldst utter folly, else had I taken my time at least in fetch- 
ing thee to my dwelling. 

Tm. Such as we are, we are, to thy thinking, fools ; but to 
the parents who begat thee, wise. 

(Ed. What parents? tarry: nay, who of mankind is my 
parent ? 

Tm. This day shall give thee thy birth and thy destruc- 
tion. 

(Ed. How over-mysterious and obscure dost thou speak 
every thing! 

Tm. Art not thou then by nature the aptest at discovering 
these ? 

(Ed. Revile me, and welcome, in those things in which 
thou wilt find me great. 



^ ceivoTTOvg. 

And long upon my troubled ear 
Rang his dark courser's hoofs of fear. — Giaour. 
2 There is probably a play upon the word 'icrog, referring to CEdipus 
discovering both what he himself was, and also how he stood related to 
his children. See Wunder. B. 



18 CEDIPUS TYRANNU8. 442—478. 

Tie. Yet is it nevertheless this very success which has 
been thy ruin^. 

(Ed. Nay, but if I have rescued this our city, I care not. 

TiR. Now then will I depart, and do thou, boy, conduct 
me. 

GEd. Well, let him conduct thee, since while here thou 
troublest and hinderest us, and, wert thou gone, thou couldst 
not annoy us more. 

TiR. I will be gone when I have spoken that for which I 
came, not from awe of thy presence''. For there is no mean 
whereby thou shalt destroy me. But I tell thee: this very 
man, whom all this while thou art searching out with menaces 
and proclamations touching Laius' murder, this man is here, 
a foreign settler here by report, but by and by shall he be 
manifested a Tlieban born, nor will he be pleased with his 
fortune. For blind instead of seeing, and a beggar instead of 
rich, over a strange land shall he be a wayfarer, assaying his 
way with a staff; but with his own children shall he be de- 
tected abiding, at once their brother and their sire, and of 
the woman of whom he was born both son and husband, and 
of his father both co-rival and assassin. And these things, 
going in- doors, reason over with thyself; and if thou detect 
me to have falsified, say then that I have no skill in divina- 
tion. 

Chorus, Who is he whom the prophetic Delphic rock 
denounced as having wrought with murderous hands the most 
nefarious of nefarious deeds ? Time were it for him to em- 
ploy in flight a foot more vigorous than coursers swift as the 
storm ; for the offspring of Jove all armed with fire and 
lightnings is springing upon him, and together are following 
the dread inevitable fates. For a voice hath glanced forth, 
but now appearing from the snowy Parnassus, that every one 
must track the undiscovered criminal. For imder some wild 
wood is he straying, among caverns and crags, like a bull^, 

^ Compare ''Fatal Marriage," Act v. sc. 4 — 

" Why, that which damns most men has ruined me; 
The making of my fortune." B. 

2 Hermann understands by TrpocrwTrov audacity; but as it is used with 
ToXjttTj^ in a subsequent passage, the translator has followed Brunck. 

3 '' Like a bull." See Virgil's Georgic, iii. 219—236. The expres- 
sions dirovoa^i^cjv, TTtpiTrorarai, etc. seem allusions to the oestrum. 



479—524. CEDIPUS TYKANNUS. 19 

with miserable foot a miserable widower : sbimning the pro- 
phecies sprung from earth's middle : but they flit around him, 
ever living. Fearfully, however, fearfully does the sage augur 
trouble me, neither assenting nor denying ^; nay, I am at a 
loss what to say. But I flutter on hopes, seeing neither in 
prospect nor in retrospect ; for what feud lay between either 
the Labdacidae or the son of Polybus, I for my part never 
learnt either heretofore, nor in the present case have I yet 
from any one'^ with whose test I, as an avenger of the Labda- 
cidae in respect to that mysterious murder, should go against 
the popular fame of (Edipus. Yet Jupiter and Apollo how- 
ever are wise, and ken the affairs of mortals ; but among men, 
that a soothsayer is of more account than I, is no certain 
conclusion; yet a man might sm-pass msdom by wisdom': 
but never would I for my part, until I saw [the seer's] words 
prove true, agree with those who condemn him. The winged 
maid came once publicly, and he was then upon trial seen to 
be sage, and the city's friend; wherefore in my mind he shall 
never be cast as guilty of a crime. 

Ckeon. Men and citizens, having learned that CEdipus the 
king accuses me in grievous terms, I come before you ill. 
brooking it. For if in these the distresses of the present 
time he considers himself to have suffered aught at my hands, 
at least by word or deed tending to his injury, truly I have 
no hankering after a long-enduring life M'hile I bear this 
report. For the penalty of this calumny upon me tends to 
no simple evil, but to one of the first magnitude, if I am 
henceforth to be called a traitor in the city, a traitor before 
thee and my friends. 

Ch. Yet surely this said reproach came, as it might be, 
forced out by rage, rather than by judgment of the mind. 

And the epithet xr;pfvwv, which might apply so well to the bull, derives 
a tremendous force from the contrast of the murderer's actual condition. 

^ So above, 89. ovt8 yap QpaavQ, Ovr ovv Trpodeiaag eiixi r(^ yt vvv 
\6yip. But ovTs doKovvT ovt' d7ro(pd(Ticov9' are generally taken, with 
ceivd, as nominatives plural, and explained, as by the Scholiast: ovTt 
TCKTTd OVTS aTTLffTa. Yct, as the prophet had affirmed (Edipus to be the 
murderer, the Chorus could hardly say that his words neither asserted 
nor denied, and I therefore think the present translation the best. B. 

- Here there is a lacuna, which Brunck supplies by xp^ff^M^J^oc. B. 

3 Cf. V. 380 — Kal TEXVT] Tix^nQ X-Ktp(pkpovaa. B. 

c2 



20 OEDIPUS TYEANNUS. 525—557. 

Cr. But by what did it appear that, persuaded by my 
counsels, the prophet speaks his words falsely? 

Ch. This was indeed averred, but I know not with what 
meaning. 

Cr. But was this same accusation alleged against me with 
eyes and mind set aright? 

Ch. I know not, for I have no eyes for what my masters 
do. But the man himself is now sallying forth from the 
palace. 

(Edipus. Ho, fellow! how camest thou hither? hast thou 
such a front of impudence that thou art come to my very roof, 
being palpably the assassin of this man, and the confessed 
robber of my royalty ? Pray tell me, in heaven's name, what 
cowardice or idiocy having remarked in me hast thou plotted 
to do this? Was it that I should not detect this work of 
thine, creeping on me by stealth, and when I had learnt 
should not protect myself against it? Why, is not this thine 
enterprise a silly one, without a multitude of friends to be 
hunting after empire, which by numbers and by wealth is to 
be achieved? 

Ce.^ Knowest thou what to do? In answer to what has 
been said, listen to an equal statement, and then be thyself 
the arbiter when informed. 

(Ed. Thou art shrewd at speaking, but I am dull at learn- 
ing of thee ; for I have found thee ill-disposed and irksome 
to me. 

Cr. This very point now first hear from me as I shall 
state it. 

CEd. This very point now see thou tell me not, how thou 
art not a villain. 

Cr. Truly, if thou thinkest wilfulness to be any gain when 
separate from understanding, thou thinkest not wisely. 

(Ed. Truly, if thou thinkest that ill-treating a kinsman 
thou shalt not undergo the penalty, thou thinkest not wisely. 

Cr. I agree with thee, that this is spoken with justice; 
but inform me of the grievance, what it may be that thou 
professest to have suffered. 

(Ed. Didst thou persuade or not persuade me, that it be- 
hoved me to send some one for the holy man of prophecy? 

Cr. Ay, and am even yet constant to my counsel. 
* See Koen on Gregarius de Dial. Attic. §.2. B. 



558—579. (EDIPUS TYEANNUS. 21 

(Ed. Well, how long time may it be now, then, since 
Laius 

Cr. Did what manner of deed? for I comprehend not. 

CEd. ]\Iysteriously disappeared by a fatal assault. 

Ce,. liong and ancient periods might be reckoned up, 

QEd. Was, then, this same diviner at that time in the 
practice of his calling. 

Cr. At least he was as sage and as much respected. 

(Ed. Well, made he any mention of me then at that time? 

Cr. Certainly not, never, at least, where I was a bystander. 

(Ed. But held ye no inquisition for the deceased? 

Cr. We commissioned one ; nay, how should we not? and 
heard nothing. 

(Ed. How was it, then, that at that time this sage revealed 
not these things ? 

Cr. I know not ; for in matters on which I have no under- 
standing I prefer being silent. 

(Ed. Yet this much at least thou knowest, and would state 
if honest of purjDOse. 

Cr. Of what sort is this thing? for if I do know it, I will 
not deny it. 

(Ed. It is, that unless he had conspired with thee^, he never 
could have said that the destruction of Laius was my doing. 

Cr. Whether he says so, thou thyself knowest ; but I claim 
the right of ascertaining from thee just the same things which 
thou hast now from me also. 

(Ed. Ascertain them ; for certainly I shall not be detected 
a murderer. 

Cr. What sayest thou, then ? art thou married to my own 
sister ? 

(Ed. There is no denial of that thou questionest. 

Cr.^ And hast thou the same sovereignty with her, swaying 
an equal share of territory ? 

^ "00' ovviKa. Thus in the old English, the ballad of the field-mouse: 
'* Who for because her livelihood was tliin. 

Would needs go seek her tovvnish sister's house." 
2 Doederlin remarks that y/yg ought rather to be made to depend upon 
apx^ig than upon 'iaov, and he prefers interpreting icrov i4fiiov, *^ parem 
diyniiatem tribuens, scil. JocastPe, ut Phil. 1020: ovttv I'lcv yap 6to\ 
vifiovai HOI, coll. V. 1062, Ant. 1371, nam de liberalitate (Edipi sermo 
est, quae in dando posita est, non de potentia ejusdem, quae in obtinendo 
cernitur." B. 



22 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 580—616. 

OEd. Whatever be her pleasure, she obtains everything 
from me. 

Cr. Am not I then the third on a par with you too ? 

(Ed. Why 'tis even in this in fact thou showest thee a 
false friend. 

Cr. Not so, if at least thou wouldst reason with thyself, 
as I do. But reflect on this first, if thou think that any 
would choose for himself, to rule in a state of apprehension, 
rather than to sleep fearless, if at least he shall still have the 
same powers. Neither, then, am I myself of a nature to 
covet the being a monarch rather than the acting as a monarch, 
nor any other who has a sense of prudence ; for now indeed 
I receive everything from thee without fear, but were I king 
myself, I should do many things even against my wishes. 
How then is monarchy naturally more pleasing to me to 
possess, than rule and puissance v*^ithout pain ? I do not yet 
happen to be so much deceived, as to wish for aught else 
than what is with profit honourable. Now I am friends v\'ith 
all, now every one salutes me, now they who have a suit to 
thee^ summon me out ; for their success is centred altogether 
in me. How then should I, having abandoned this place, 
grasp at that other? A well-intentioned spirit could not 
become wicked. But I am neither by nature a warm admirer 
•of this same sentiment, nor should I ever venture on it with 
another to effect it : and as a test of this, in the first place, 
go to Delphi, and inquire if I have fairly reported to thee, 
what was prophesied ; thus much more ; if thou detect me 
to have complotted aught in common with the soothsayer, 
take and put me to death, not by a single suffrage, but by 
a double one, both mine and thine ; but hold me not guilty 
without a hearing, on an uncertain opinion. For it is not 
just lightly to deem the wicked good, or the good wicked. 
For to cast away a virtuous friend, I call as bad as to cast 
away one's own life, which one loves best. But in time 
thou shalt discern all this, without fail, since time alone 
develops the honest man ; but a traitor thou mightest discover 
even in one day. 

Ch. Commendably hath he spoken to one who is cautious 

1 Wunder reads aiKciXXovai, "court me," from the conjecture of Dind. 
Perhaps the common reading may be defended by Trach. 1206, old /: 
IkkuXh, Trdrtp. 



617—641. (EDIPUS TrUANNUS. 23 

of falling, prince; for they who are hasty to judge are 
insecure. 

(Ed. When any one takes quick steps in covert plots, it 
needs me counteract him in counsel quickly ; but if, keeping 
quiet, I wait for him, his plans will be accomplished, but 
mind marred. 

Cr. Well then, what is thine aim ? To eject me from the 
land? 

(Ed. By no means : I wish thee to die, not to be exiled. 

Cr. When thou shalt first have shown the nature of thy 
grudge to me. 

(Ed. ^Speakest thou as one who will obey neither command 
nor agreement ? 

Cr. Yes; for I see thou art not in thy right mind. 

(Ed. For my own interest at least. 

Cr. But thou oughtest as much for mine too. 

(Ed. But thou art a born traitor. 

Cr. But what an thou nnderstandest nothing ? 

(Ed. Yet still one must be ruled. 

Cr. Surely not by a bad ruler at least. 

(Ed. O city, city! 

Cr. I too have a part in the city, and not thou only. 

Ch. Princes, desist ; but opportunely for you both, I see 
Jocasta advancing from the palace, in concert with whom 
you are bound amicably to settle your quarrel now pending. 

Jocasta. Why, infatuated, have ye raised this unadvised 
strife of tongue, nor blush ye, when our land is thus diseased, at 
stirring up private mischiefs ? Wilt not both thou get thee 
home, and thou, Creon, to thy dwelling, and not raise a 
nothing of an offence to magnitude ? 

Cr. Sister, QEdipus, thy husband, thinks proper to do me 
foul wrong, having limited choice to two evils, either to 
banish me from my father's land, or to take and slay me. 

^ Dr. Spillan's version has, " Say you that you will not yield and sub- 
mit?" The Cambridge, " Do you speak as not about to depart nor to 
obey me.'" The old Oxford, " Sayest thou that thou wilt neither yield, 
nor obey?" None of these interpretations appear satisfactory. I think 
there is some error in Tnartvaiov, and perhaps no interrogation is heeded. 
One would almost expect such a sense as this, " You speak as one that 
can neither yield nor convince." Fdp is similarly used in a passage very 
like the present one, Trach. 1232, wg gpyaaeiwv ovSiv (t>v Xlyw Opotii, 
YAA02. tLq yap iroO'. B. 



■2i ■ (EDIPUS TYEAXNUS. 642—678. 

(Ed. I confess it ; for I have detected him, lady, in mal- 
practices against my person with wicked craft. 

Cr. Now may I never prosper, but perish accursed, if I 
have done aught to thee of what thou accusest me of doing. 

Jo. Oh! in the gods' name, QEdipus, be persuaded to this : 
most especially, indeed, in respect to this adjuration of the 
gods ; secondly, to both rae and these who are here present. 

Ch. Be prevailed on, willingly and sensibly, O king, I 
implore thee. 

CEd. What wilt thou, then, I shall concede to thee ? 

Ch. To respect him who neither ere now was imprudent, 
and now is mighty in virtue of his oath. 

(Ed. Dost know then what thou wishest ? 

Ch. I do know. 

(Ed. Explain, then, what thou hast to say. 

Ch. That thou bring not into impeachment and disgrace 
thy friend, Hvho has thus made oath, at least upon an un- 
certain charge. 

(Ed. Know now full well, that when thou seekest this, 
thou art seeking death or banishment from this land for me. 

Ch. No, by the god, chieftain of all the gods, the sun, 
since I wish I may die godless, friendless, the direst of 
all deaths, whatever it be, if I have this design ; but the 
withering land wears out the spirit of hapless me, especially 
if these troubles, I mean those which arise from you two, 
shall attach to the previous afflictions. 

(Ed. Then let him be gone ; ay, if it be my destiny utterly 
to fall a victim, or be thrust out by violence, dishonoured 
from this country ; for 'tis thy piteous appeal, not his, that I 
compassionate : but he, wherever he shall be, shall be loathed. 

Gk. Full of loathing, indeed, thou plainly showest thyself 
in yielding ; but, sad [mlt thou be,J when thou shalt have 
exceeded in thy passion. Such tempers, however, are justly 
the most painful to themselves to bear with. 

(Ed. Wilt thou not leave me alone, and get thee forth } 

Cr. I will be gone, having met with you indeed who know 
me not; but in the eyes of these men just. 

Ch. Lady, why delayest thou to convey this man within 
the house? 

* This is Erfurdt's interpretation of ivajrj. Liddell well renders it, 
" who has pledged himself under a curse." See Lexicon, sub v. B. 



679— 706i (EDIPUS TYKANNUS. 25 

Jo. I M-ill, when I have learnt at least wliat may have 
happened. 

Ch. An iincertain suspicion came of certain words : even 
the imjiist taunt is cutting. 

Jo. From both of them r 

Ch. Even so. 

Jo. And what was the saying? 

Ch. Enough, enough to me at least it seems, when the 
land is previously distressed, that it rest there M'here it left 
off. 

GEd. Seest thou to what thou, a man of upright intention, 
art come,^ gi^'iiig ^^P ^J side, and hardening your heart 
against me ? 

Ch. prince, I have said not once alone, but know that 
I should show myself beside my senses, incapacitated from 
regaining those senses, were I to secede ft-om thee, who hast 
piloted right steadily down the stream mine own dear land, 
when rocking about in troubles ; ^and now too, be safe con- 
voy to it, if thou mayest. 

Jo. In the gods" name inform me also. O king, from what 
circumstances on earth thou hast conceived so great wrath 
as this. 

CEd. I TN-ill tell thee : for I hold thee, lady, in more res- 
pect than these : it is from Creon ; that he has plotted such 
devices against me. 

Jo. Speak, if thou wilt plainly state the cause of quarrel, 
charging it on him. 

CEd. He says that I am the murderer of Laius. 

Jo. Of his own pri\-ity, or having learnt it from other? 

CEd. AMiy, by having sent me a knavish soothsayer, 
however ; for as to himself, at least, he exculpates his speech 
entirely'. 

^ So r. Jacobs : Trapidg is, to the best of my knowledge;, always used 
of what one does of or to oneself, not of what one causes another to do. 
(See EUendt.) The same remark applies to ixpeig. The old translation 
was, " by lowering and deadening my spirit.'' B. 

2 Cf. V. 52 sq. B. yivov is condemned by Hermann as spurious. 

^ i. e. from having accused me. It appears strange that so many com- 
mentators should have missed the true sense of a passage so strongly 
marked by the particles /.di' ovv, and the yk in the next clause. CEdipus 
is positive (ovi') of Tiresias being merely Creon's niouth])iece, though 
Creon himself had vindicated his own language. See Hermann's and 



26 (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 707—739. 

Jo. Do thou now, leaving thine own matter alone, as 
touching the things thou speakest of, give ear to me, and 
learn for thy comfort, that there is no mortal thing possessed 
of the prophetic art. But I will develope to thee concise 
evidence of this. For long ago came an oracle to Laius, I will 
not assert from Phoebus himself, however, but from his min- 
isters, that his doom should come for him to fall by a son who 
should be begotten of me and him. And him, indeed, at 
least as the storj' goes, do foreign robbers murder on a time, 
at the junction of three carriage-ways. But from the birth 
of the child there intervened not three days before he, having 
tied the joints of its feet together, cast it away by others' 
hands, upon an untrodden mountain. And therein Apollo 
brought to pass neither that it should be the slayer of its 
father, nor that Laius, the disaster which he then dreaded, 
should die by his son's hand. Such fates did the prophetic 
declarations predetermine, of which take thou no heed, For 
whatever the god investigates as necessary, will he in person 
easily make appear. 

(Ed. What distraction of soul and perturbation of feelings 
at this moment possesses me, having heard thee, lady. 

Jo. By what manner of solicitude altered in mind sayest 
thou this ? 

QEd. I thought I heard this from thee, that Laius was 
slaughtered near three highways. 

Jo. Yes; for these things were rumoured, nor have they 
yet ceased to be. 

(Ed. And where is this said spot where this catastrophe 
occurred ? 

Jo. Phocis the land is called : but a separate road leads to 
the same point from Delphi and from Daulia. 

(Ed. And what is the time that has elapsed to these 
events ? 

Jo. Some short time previous to thy coming forward as 
ruler of this land, were these rumoui'S published to the city. 

(Ed. Jupiter, what hast thou jDurposed to do by me? 

Jo. But what, O (Edipus, is this monster of thy thought? 

Erfurdt's notes. Tr. More simply, " he keeps his speech free from 
such assertion." In Liddell's Lexicon it is rendered, " every man's tongue 
is ready to acquit himself." B. 



740—761. (EDIPUS TYEANNUS. 27 

QEd. Question me not yet^ But of Lams, tell me what 
personal appearance he had, and that'* at what era of his 
prime. 

Jo. Of lofty port, just now whitening to down the hoary 
honours of his head: but he was not very unlike thine own 
form^. 

(Ed. Woe me unhappy ! It seems I have, without know- 
ing it, even now forced myself prematurely into horrid cm-ses. 

Jo. How sayest thou ? verily I shudder as I glance at thee, 
O king. 

CEd, Fearfully am I despondent, lest the prophet see too 
well : but thou wilt the surer demonstrate it if thou wilt be 
explicit on one more point. 

Jo. Indeed, indeed I shrink from it; yet what thou shalt 
ask, if aware, I will tell. 

(Ed. Was he journeying thinly attended, or with a train 
of many armed retainers, as one of a chieftain's rank should? 

Jo. They were five altogether ; and among them was a 
herald : but a single chariot conveyed Laius. 

(Ed. Alas ! all this is now full clear. Who on earth was 
he M^ho told this same narrative to you, lady ? 

Jo. A certain domestic, who in fact M'as the only one who 
returned safely escaped. 

(Ed. And does he happen to be now at hand in the 
palace ? 

Jo. no ! for from the time when he returned thence, 
and saw both thee holding the government, and Laius dead, 
he petitioned me, grasping my hand, to send him into the 

1 *' Not yet." Porson says, ad Hec. 1260, (ed. Pors.) that ixrjTrw ii 
used for fii^Trors, which Erfurdt quotes on this place, although totally 
inapplicable, and quotes moreover without the most essential part, the 
" XiTOTTjQ quaedam " of ju-jyTrw for /.(TjTrorf; which omission might lead 
one to suppose that Porson thought the two words equivalent, and the 
particle ttw to have two senses. 

2 " And that." Erfurdt's note on this place is truly admirable, when 
contrasted with the opinions of those learned men who, by dubbing those 
words noirs faineants which they cannot express, would conceal their 
own laziness or the poverty of modern languages. "' Participia ix*^v, 
XafSujv, et alia nunquam sic ponuntur, ut nihil plane significent, sem- 
perque imaginibus rerum ad summam illam, cui Graecorum nobilissima 
gens per omnia studebat, perfectionem exjirimendis inserviunt." 

3 See Schlegel's Vllth Lecture, p. 102, Bohn's transl. B. 



28 (EDIPU8 TYKANNUS. TGI— 792. 

country and to the pastures of the flocks, that he might be 
most completely removed from sight of this city. And I sent 
him : for he was worthy, considering he was a slave, to 
obtain even a higher favour than this. 

(Ed. Would that he might then return to us speedily ! 

Jo. It is possible : but wherefore seekest thou this ? 

QEd. For myself I fear, lady, lest overmuch have been 
said by me, for which cause I wish to see him. 

Jo. Nay, he shall come. But surely I also am worthy to 
leam, at least, what circumstances are irksome to thee, 
king. 

CEd. And thou surely must by no means be disappointed 
of this, when I have now arrived at such a pitch of expec- 
tancy^ For to whom could I speak who would be of more 
account even than thou, when implicated in such a fate as 
this ? I had for my father Polybus of Corinth, for my mother, 
Merope of Doris : and I was esteemed chiefest in rank of the 
citizens of Corinth, before an accident befel me such as I 
shall tell, worthy indeed of wonder, but unworthy never- 
theless of the interest I took in it. For at a banquet a man 
overcharged with wine, brands me over his cups with being 
a supposititious son of my father. And I, deeply displeased, 
with much ado restrained me for that day ; but on the next 
I visited my mother and my father, and strictly questioned 
them ; but they were highly offended for the afiront with 
him who gave vent to the assertion. And I was pleased 
indeed with them : but yet this [innuendo] was always 
galling me, for it had sunk deep in my mind. So unknown 
to my mother and father I go on a journey to Delphi. And 
Phoebus, as to the matters for which I came, sent me away 
without the honour of an answer; but other fortunes, wretched, 
and horrible, and deplorable, he was but too ready to tell'*': 
that it was my doom to commit incest with my mother, and 
that I should bring to Hght a progeny mankind should not 

1 Erfurdt, referring to v. 829^ thinks IXttiq correctly translated by hope 
here. The other seems the most natural sequel to CEdipus' words imme- 
diately preceding. 

2 JJpoixpdvr] Xsyiov. Aperte prcBclixit. Brunck. But both the sense 
of the passage and the force of 7rpo(pdvT]rs in the first chorus are in favour 
of the other rendering. Tr. Wunder reads Trpovfrjvev, Xsyojv. See his 
note. B. 



793—811. (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 29 

endure to behold, and that I should be the murderer of the 
father who begot me. And I on hearing this, from that time 
forth measuring' out the site of the land of Corinth by the 
stars, began my flight from it to where I might never witness 
the scandals of those evil prophecies about me accomplished. 
But in my travel I reach those very spots on which thou 
sayest that this same monarch met his death. And to thee, 
lady, will I di\'ulge the truth : when I wending on my way* 
was close upon this triple road, there did both a herald, and 
a man mounted on a chariot with young steeds, even as thou 
describest, meet me ; and both the guide and the old man 
himself were for driving me by force oif the road. So I in 
passion strike him who was turning me off, the charioteer. 
And the old man M^hen he sees this, having watched my 
passing by, struck me from the car with a doubled goad a 
descending blow on the middle of the head. Ay, and he paid 
a penalty not equivalent, I trow, but hastily struck by a staff 

1 But see Heath. B. 

2 This is the first of four passages which Hermann i-n his preface to 
Erfurdfs edition has specially noticed. Elmsley in his preface has these 
words : *' ""H pro r]v, eram, quater reposui. ^Hv aliquoties ante vocalem 
legitur apud Euripidem, ut in Hippol, 1012; Ale. 658; Iph. Aul. 944; 
Ion. 280. Quamquam hsec omnia corrupta esse suspicor. Sic etiam ter 
Aristophanes, sed in Pluto^ novissima omnium fabula, v. 2% 695, 823. 
Nihil tale apud Sophoclem reperitur. Vid. CEd. Tyr. 801, 1123, 1389, 
1393; CEd. Col. 768, 973, 1366; Trach. 87, 414; Aj. 1377; Phil. 1219; 
El. 1023." From this remark of our critic, Hermann has taken occasion 
to dilate at some length on the propriety of limiting the alteration pro- 
posed, and brings forward the following points for consideration: 1st. 
That if the tragic writers never, and Aristophanes only in his latest written 
play, used ^v, it is strange that Plato, many of whose writings are sub- 
sequent to the Plutus, should have adhered to the obsolete form. That to 
the above lines of Euripides no other suspicion of a corrupt text can 
attach than the identical rj in question; and that therefore it were safer 
to have determined that tragic and comic writers used riv, in order to 
avoid the hiatus before a vowel. 2nd. That if ea or ji/a and iov be found 
in Homer as imperfects of eljii, the old grammarians considered rjjjv no 
less so, (11. 0. 80): that the ea of Herodobas, the imperfect, seems diffe- 
rent from Homer's ea, which in one instance (Od. ^. 351), must be taken 
as an aorist, and may in all he has cited. 3rd. That the Attics may, as 
in other cases of a double imperfect, have taken r), though formed from 
the undoubted imperfect ea, as an aorist. For the examples adduced in 
support of this opinion, see Hermann's preface. In this passage he 
retains ^v, admitting either to be correct. 



30 OEDIPUS TYRANNUS'. 811—848. 

from this hand, he is instantly rolled out of the chariot pros- 
trate, and I slay the whole of them. But if Laius and this 
same stranger have any near connexion,* who is a more pi- 
tiable object than I, even I ? What man could there be more 
abhorred of the gods ? to whom it is permitted that none of 
strangers or natives should admit him within their dwellings ; 
that none should even accost him, but thrust him from their 
dwellings : and this it was no other than I, that fastened on 
myself even these curses. Nay the couch of him who is 
deceased do I pollute by my hands, those hands by which he 
fell. Am I not by nature a villain ? am I not totally impure ? 
if I must needs flee the country, and having fled am to be 
permitted neither to behold mine own, nor to set foot on my 
native soil ; or I am doomed to be yoked in wedlock with my 
mother,^ and to kill outright my father Polybus, who reared, 
who begot me. And would not any one, pronouncing all 
this to be the work of a ruthless daemon upon me, be right 
in his words ? Then may I never, may I never, thou spot- 
less majesty of heaven, see this day, but may I be gone from 
among mankind into darkness ere that I view such a taint of 
misery come upon me. 

Ch. To us, O king, these tidings are alarming : until how- 
ever thou hast ascertained fully from the eyewitness, have hope. 

QEd. Yes, certainly, so much hope at least I have, as 
merely to abide the coming of the man, the herdsman. 

Jo. But when he has made his appearance, w^hat re- 
assurance canst thou have ? 

GEd. I will inform thee. For should he be found to be 
in the same story Avith thee, I for my part may have escaped 
the woe. 

Jo. But Avhat word heardst thou from me, so particularly 
remarkable ? 

CEd. Thou toldst that he spake of certain robbers, that 
they slew the king : if therefore he shall report the same 
number still, I was not his slayer, for one at least could not 
be the same with many. But if he shall mention one man 
journeying alone, this very deed thereupon plainly falls upon me. 

Jo. Nay, be assured that the tale was so published at 

^ This verse is condemned by L. Dindorf and Wander. B. 
'^ Wunder's objections to this verse seem reasonable. B. 



849—890. CEDIPUS TTHANNUS. 31 

least, and he cannot again nullify this at any rate ; for the 
whole city, and not I only, heard these tidings. But if, after 
all, he should in any point deviate from his former account, 
never, O prince, shaU he show that Laius' murder at least 
was duly consistent, whom I ween Loxias declared must 
perish by a son of mine^. And yet he, the ill-starred babe, 
never slew him, but himself perished long before. So that I 
never again for the sake of divination at least would turn 
mine eyes either this way or that. 

(Ed. Well dost thou determine ; but yet send one to con- 
vey hither the hind, nor neglect this. 

Jo. I will hasten to despatch one; but let us go in doors: 
for I would do nought which might be displeasing to thee. 

Chokus. O may it be my lot to support the aU-sainted 
purity of every word and action, regarding which are pro- 
pounded laws of state sublime, engendered within the fir- 
mament of heaven, whose only father is Olympus ; nor did 
the perishable nature of man give them being, no, nor shall 
oblivion even drown them in sleep. Great is the divinity in 
these, nor groweth old. Insolence engenders the tyrant, 
Insolence, if idly she have been over-glutted with much that 
is neither seasonable nor serviceable, having surmounted the'^ 
topmost precipice, dashes onward into ruin, where she useth 
her feet in vain. But the rival energy that profits the state I 
implore the deity never to unnerve ; whom never will I cease 
to take for my patron. But if any walk presumptuously in 
deed or word, unawed of justice nor reverencing the seats of 
the powers above, may evil doom overtake him in reward of 
his fatal wantonness ; unless he shall gain his gains honestly, 
and refrain himself from all unhallowed things, or if he, vain 
fool, shall grasp at what is sacred from the touch^. In this 

^ This passage is not clear. Bothe and "Wunder read, aov ye for tov 
■yt, " nondum tarn en a te Laium interfectum esse omnino probat." B. 

- But aKTOorarov and aTroTOjxov cannot be joined, and there is equal 
difficulty in the metrical disagreement between this and the strophic verse. 
Dindorf supposes some substantive lost, which Wunder thinks may have 
given place to one of the adjectives. I do not, however, see why he 
should object to joining cnroTOfiov with avayKav, for cnroTOfioi^ may be 
taken both in its ordinary sense of "abruptus" (Cf. Herodot. 1., 84), 
and for " harsh, rough," as we find in Eurip. Alcest. 931, ovSk ri^ airo- 
TOfiov Xrjfiarog tariv aldiog. B. 

2 The difficulty in this passage arises from the separation of the two 



32 (EDIPUS TTRANNUS. 891 — 911. 

state of things, what man will ever i^ain glory* in repulsing 
from his soul the darts of passion ? for if practices such as 
these be had in honour, why need I lead the chorus ? Never 
again will I make pilgrimage to the hallowed centre of earth 
as worshipper, nor to the shrine at Abae, no nor the Olympian, 
unless* these matters shall turn out congruous, so as to be 
pointed at by the finger of all mankind. But, O sovereign 
Jove, if indeed thou art rightly styled ruler of the universe, 
be it not unregarded by thee and thine ever-undying empire. 
For already they are overthrowing the prophecies delivered 
to Lams, which fall into decay, and nowhere is Apollo con- 
spicuous in worship, but all that is divine is going to ruin. 
Jo.^ Princes of the land, the design has suggested itself to 

clauses, ft* TiQ...7ropeveTai and i) tu>v a.9 . fX . nara^iov, by the interme- 
diate words. With tp^iTai we must understand firi, and connect it closely 
with the preceding words. B. 

^ This translation follows Hermann's correction tv^trai.. .Qvfiov.., 
a^vvHv, but Hermann has himself changed his mind, and would throw 
out ipttrai altogether, in which he is followed by Wunder in his third 
ediLion. tp^irai cannot be construed, Hermann's third opinion is that 
we should read Tig in ttot' kv roiao avrjp, QeCiV 9k\y rvxag dfivveiv, 
Brunck reads 'i^ei, Elmsley t'ip^sTai. As this variation of opinions will 
sufficiently puzzle the reader, I will merely observe that Brunck's reading 
appears easiest, and that Hermann's last opinion, as in many other in- 
stances, is his worst. Dindorf leaves the text unintelligible. Qvfiip must 
not be altered, for it is against passion that the whole advice of the Chorus 
is directed. And if altered, what are at roiaiSe Trpd^eig? The sense 
ought doubtless to be that expressed by the translator, or something near 
it, and the chief difficulty appears to rest in the verb to be employed. 
With this chorus compare the one in the 4th act of Seneca's CEdipus. B. 

" The construction seems rather to be el p.ri rdSe apfiocTei rrdaiv (iporoXg, 
iaari yeipb^iiKTa elvai, " unless these things shall turn out to the satis- 
faction of all mortals, so that they may point to them wdth the finger." B. 

^ Jocasta here, contrasted with the Jocasta of the following scenes, 
seems an instance of that 6ixa\u>g dviofxaXog of Aristotle, which Bossu so 
well illustrated by the regular irregularities of " th' inconstant moon." 
That Jocasta is dvojfJiaXog in the play is evident: but is she so oiiaXuJg? 
The mother who in three days from the birth of her firstborn could 
abandon him to his fate without an effort to save him; the queen-consort 
who could so soon forget the husband of her youth, that in such time as 
it took to finish a journey from Delphi to Thebes, hear and solve a riddle, 
she could wed an utter stranger; such a woman might assuredly, without 
violation of historic truth, be represented as changing with the breath of 
every rumour. If anything were wanting to make the character more 
natural, it is supplied in her clear-sightedness with regard to her husband. 



912—941. CEDIPUS TYEANNITS. 33 

me of repairing a suppliant to the temples of the gods, having 
taken in my hands these ehaplets and incense-offerings. For 
CEdipus raises his feelings to too high excitement by griefs 
of every variety, nor, as should a man of understanding, 
conjectures what is new by what is old ; but is the speaker's 
dupe, if he but speak of horrors. Since then by adWsing I 
make none the more progress, to thee, Lyca^an Apollo,^ 
seeing thou art nearest at hand, am I come a petitioner with 
these rites of prayer, that thou mayest furnish us with some 
holy remedy, since now we are all quailing to see him, as 
pilot of the vessel, horror-stricken. 

MESSE^^ GER. Could I learn from you, strangers, where is the 
abode of the monarch CEdipus ? but chiefly of himself, tell 
me if ye know where he is. 

Ch. This is his mansion, and himself is within, stranger; 
but this lady is the mother of his children. 

Mes. But may she be prosperous herself, and ever con- 
sort with the prosperous,* for that she is his true and proper 
wife. 

Jo. Nay, and thou also the same, O stranger, since thou 
deservest it for thy courteous accost : but make known in 
quest of what thou hast come, and w^hat desirous to impai't. 

Mes. Good to thy house and husband, lady. 

Jo, Of what nature this same good? and from whence 
anived ? 

]Mes. From Corinth : but at the tale which I shall di^^lge 
thou mightst perhaps be gratified ; nay, how shouldst thou 
not ? yet haply mightst thou be sorry. 

Jo. But what is it ? what sort of twofold force does it 
thus possess ? 

Mes. The inhabitants of the Isthmian land will set him 
up for their king, as was there reported. 

Jo. But what? is not the aged Polybus still on the throne? 

who, she says, tern tov XeyovTOQ, quite uncoBseious of this being her 
own chief weakness. 

1 Probably having an altar on the stage, in front of the palace. See the 
Schol. B. 

2 Here seems to be a masterly allusion to the real state of things. Tlie 
very messenger, whose intelligence leads to the fatal discovery, lays em- 
phatic stress upon the married felicity of Jocasta ! Musgrave has made 
a similar remark respecting the words, yvvrj Ss fxrjTijp. B. 

D 



34 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS, 942—970. 

Mes. No truly, since death prisons him in the grave. 

Jo. How hast thou said ? is Polybus deceased, old man ? 

Mes. If I speak not the truth, I confess me worthy of 
death. 

Jo. Ho, handmaiden, wilt thou not be gone and tell this 
with all speed to thy lord ? Predictions of the gods, where 
are ye ? This very man CEdipus, long ago in alarm lest he 
should murder, went into banishment, and now, behold ! he 
nas perished by course of nature, not by my husband. 

CEdipus. dearest head of my wife Jocasta, wherefore hast 
thou sent for me hither out of the palace here ? 

Jo. Listen to this man, and as thou hearest, mark to what 
are come the solemn predictions of the god. 

(Ed. But who can this man be, and what has he to tell 
me? 

Jo. From Corinth, to bring thee news that thy father Polybus 
is no more, but is dead. 

CEd. What say est thou, stranger ? Do thou thyself become 
my informant. 

Mes. If I must firs^ deliver me of this fact clearly, be 
assured that he is dead and gone^. 

(Ed. By treachery, or the encounter of disease:' 

Mes. a trifling bend of the scale sends aged frames to rest. 

CEd. By sickness, it seems, the poor sufferer wasted away. 

Mes. And^ commensurately, I ween, with a long time 
of life. 

CEd. Alas ! alas ! when then, my queen, should any one 
regard the prophetic hearth of Pytho, or the birds that scream 
above our heads, under whose predestination I was fated to 
slay my own father ? But he is dead and buried deep down 
in earth, while I here before you am guiltless of handling 
weapon against him, unless in any degree he pined away from 
regret of me,* but so he might have died by my means. The 

^ Not with odov understood after 6avdai[iov, but the latter agreeing 
with fSefirjKora, according to Erfurdt. 

^ Seneca CEdip. act iv. sc. 2, 4, "Edissere agedum, quo cadat fato 
parens. Senex. Animam senilem mollis exsolvil sopor." B. 

3 ^vfifierpoviJLtvog must be taken with t.<pQiTo understood, as if it were 
the adverb ^vfifieTpovixevujg. This is much the most simple way. B. 

■* Perhaps for ovtii) 8' we should read ovtu) y', " ita saltern," " So, for- 
sooth, he might have died by my means." B. 



971—993. (EDIPUS TYRANNTTS. 35 

present oracles then Polybus has swept off with him utterly- 
worthless, and lies in Hades. 

Jo. Did I not now forewarn thee of this long ago ? 

(Ed. Thou didst say it ; but I was led away by my fear. 

Jo. See thou no longer give one of them place in thy mind 
now. 

CEd. And how must I not shrink from a mother's bed ? 

Jo.^ But why should man fear, whom the decrees of chance 
control, while there is no certain foresight of aught ? 'Twere 
best to live at random, e'en as one could. But have thou no 
fear of the bridal alliance with thy mother ; for many among 
mankind have ere now, and that in dreams, done incest with 
a mother; but to whomsoever this reckons as nothing, he 
bears his life the easiest. 

CEi). Fairly had all this been stated by thee, had my 
mother happened not to have been alive ; but now, since she 
does live, there is positive necessity, even though thou say est 
fairly, for me to recoil. 

Jo. And yet the burial of thy father at least thi'ows a great 
Kght on this. 

(Ed. Great, I admit ; but I have dread of the surviving 
woman. 

Mes. But on what woman's account it is even that ye are 
afraid ? 

(Ed. Of Merope, old man, with whom Polybus used to live. 

Mes. But what is there of her which makes to your ap- 
prehension ? 

(Ed. a dreadful heaven-sent prediction, stranger. 

Mes. Is it to be spoken, or is it not lawful that another 
know it ? 

^ These reflections on the part of the king and queen are the more un- 
grateful, in that Apollo had just sent them, without demur, instructions 
for the removal of the plague. The whole demeanour of these impious 
personages, who 

"lifted up so high, 

Disdained subjection, and thought one step higher 
Would set them highest;" 
and their encouragement of each other in irreligion, reminds one forcibly 
of Vathek and Nouronihar, when " with haughty and determined gait" 
they descended the staircase of Istakhar to the Hall of Ebhs. In both 
princes curiosity is the prime agent; and in both "TjSpit;, djcporaroj 
tlaava^aa drcoTonov, wpovatv ig dvdyKav. 

D 2 



36 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 994—1017. 

(Ed. Most certainly it is. For Apollo foretold once that 
it was my destiny to be my own mother's paramttur, and with 
mine own hands to shed my father's blood. For which cause 
has Corinth, this long while, been dwelt far away from by me, 
prosperously indeed ; but still it is most sweet to behold the 
faces of one's parents. 

Mes, Why, was it in dread of this thou becamest an exile 
from thence ? 

(Ed. And from desire also to avoid being my father's mur- 
derer, old man. 

Mes. Why then have I not released thee from this thy 
fear, king, since in fact I came thy well-wisher? 

(Ed. And if you do so, thou shalt have a right worthy re- 
compense of me. 

Mes. Ay, and I swear I came especially for this, that, on 
thy restoration to thy home, I might in some way be advan- 
taged. 

(Ed. But never will I come into the presence of my parents, 
at least. 

Mes. My son, thou^ fairly she west that thou knowest not 
what thou art doing. 

(Ed. How, old man? In the name of the gods, instruct 
me. 

Mes. If for these causes thou shunnest to return home. 

(Ed. It is at least from alarm lest Phoebus prove in the 
issue true towards me. 

Mes. Is it lest thou shouldst contract contamination from 
thy parents ? 

(Ed. This very thing, old man, even this for ever affrights 
me. 

Mes. Knowest thou not, then, that thou tremblest with no 
just cause? 

(Ed. Nay, how should I not, at least if I was the child of 
these progenitors? 

Mes. Even because Polybus was in no wise of kin to thee. 

(Ed. How hast thou said? why, was not Polybus my 
father? 



1 This is the most literal construing of Kokwg d SijXog. On KoXwg in 
the sense of " valde," "prorsus," see Wakefield and Schsefer. Compare 
the Latin phrases "pulchre scire, inteUigere." B. 



1018—1035. (EDIPUS TYRANNT7S. 37 

Mes. Not a whit more than he thou seest before thee, 
about as much. 

(Ed. And how comes one's father to be on a par with no 
one^? 

Mes. But neither he begat thee, nor I. 

(Ed. But in consideration of what, then, did he allow me 
a son's title? 

Mes. Know, it was from ha"\dng received thee formerly a 
present from my hands. 

(Ed. And then did he, though from another's hand, thus 
dearly love me ? 

Mes. Yes, for his former childless state induced him. 

(Ed. But wert thou my purchaser or parent', and gavest 
me to him? 

Mes. Ha^'ing found thee in the bushy dells of Cithseron. 

(Ed. But for what piu'pose wert thou a wayfarer in those 
said regions? 

Mes. I used to be superintendant there of the mountain 
flocks. 

CEd. How! wert thou a shepherd and a wanderer on a 
menial drudgery? 

Mes. Ay, but thy saviour at the same time, my son! 

(Ed. But what pain dost thou find me sufi'ering in that 
wretchedness ? 

]\Ies. The joints of thy feet might attest that. 

(Ed. Woe is me! why mention this ancient curse? 

Mes. I unbind thee having the soles of thy feet bored 
through. 

(Ed. Dire indignity, indeed, did I sustain from these 
tokens^. 

1 This, according to Erfurdt, is not to be understood of the meanness 
or nothingness of the herdsman, but, as he paraphrases it, "Qui dici 
possunt genuisse aliquem, quorum nemo genuit?" See v. 838, and tlie 
note following. 

'^ " Or parent." Hermann remarks that it might seem wonderful for 
CEdipus to ask this, when the messenger had just told him that he was 
not his father any more than Polybus; but that he must consider 
CEdipus as attending to the intention of the old man, and not his words. 
Hence, too, when CEdipus says 7ra>g o cpvaag t^ 'laov rep fujctvi; he does 
not allude slightingly to the old man, but merely to himself having no 
father. 

3 Brunck translates (nrdpyava by erejmndia, child's baubles or badges, 
not supplying t/c, which dvtiXofiTjv however seems to require. Perhaps 



38 (EDIPUS TTRANNUS. 1036—1056. 

Mes. Insomuch that thou wert named this misfortune as 
thou art. 

(Ed. Say, in heaven's name, by my father's or my mother's 
deed? 

Mes. I know not; but he who gave thee understands this 
better than I. 

(Ed. Why didst thou receive me of another, nor find me 
thyself? 

Mes. I found thee not, but 'tis another shepherd who trans- 
ferred thee to me. 

(Ed. Who was this? knowest thou to designate him in 
words ? 

Mes. He was named, I am sure, one of the servants of 
Laius. 

(Ed. Of him who was monarch of this land long ago? 

Mes. Certainly. Of that very man was this a herdsman. 

(Ed. And is he yet alive, that I may see him? 

Mes. You, the natives of this country surely should best 
know. 

(Ed. Is there any of you bystanders who knows this herds- 
man to whom he alludes, having seen him in short either in 
the country or here? inform me, since it is the moment for 
this to be investigated. 

Ch. I, indeed, deem him none other than the servant from 
the country, whom even before this thou soughtest diligently 
to see. But, however, Jocasta here could certify this the best. 

(Ed. Lady, knowest thou him whom but now we were ear- 
nest should come, and of whom this person speaks ? 

Jo. (wildly.) But who, who is he of whom he spake? 
Heed it not: nay, what has been uttered, do not wish so 
much as to remember for no good. 

there might have iJeen in (TTra^yavov a sense not given by lexicographers, 
from the verb aTrapydu), tumeo. Ta,., who rendered it, "Ah, dire indig- 
nity, indeed, did 1 bring off with me from my swaddling clothes." But 
it is far more elegant to suppose an allusion to the crepundia, which were 
hung about the necks of children when exposed. (See Wunder's note.) 
To these (Edipus compares the wounds in his feet. Nicolaus Damascenus, 
in the same MS. extract quoted above, uses the phrase, <^cai yap tovq 
"TTodag VTTO <jTrapydvo)v. Seneca, who imitates this whole scene closely, 
understood it as I do, act 4, sc. 2, 39: CEdipus. "Nunc adjice certas 
corporis nostri notas. Sen ex. Forato ferro gesseras vestigia, Tumore 
nactus nomen ac vitio pedum." B. 



1057—1086. CEDIFITS TYRANKTTS. 39 

(Ed. This cannot be, that I having obtained such a clue as 
this, shall not elucidate my descent. 

Jo. By the gods I beg thee, do not, if at least thou care 
for thine own life, investigate this : 'tis enough that I be ill 
at ease. 

(Ed. Courage ; for never, not even were I proved by three 
descents a trebly servile slave, wilt thou be exposed as base. 

Jo. Yet obey me, I conjure thee: do not this. 

(Ed. I could not obey thee in not clearly sifting this out. 

Jo. And yet with kind intentions at least I advise thee for 
the best. 

(Ed. Why now it is this very best that long since aggrieves 
me. 

Jo. Miserable man, I would thou mightest never know 
Avho thou art! 

(Ed. Will some one go and bring hither to me the herds- 
man ? But for her, leave her to enjoy her noble lineage. 

Jo. Woe, woe, unhappy man! for this only have I to say to 
thee, but other word hereafter — ^none. 

Ch. For what possible cause can the queen be gone, O 
(Edipus, having rushed away under the impulse of a wild 
anguish? I dread lest from this very silence there burst forth 
mischief. 

(Ed. Burst forth whatever will : but I shall choose to dis- 
cover my origin, even if it be humble. But she perhaps, 
since for a woman she has a high spirit, is scandalized at this 
my meanness of extraction. But I, ranking myself the child 
of that Chance which gives me her blessing, shall not feel 
dishonoured. For of her, as of a mother, was I born^, and 
the congenial months ordained me humble and exalted. 
But being born such, I could never turn out to be another, 
that I should not search out my pedigree. 

Chorus^. If I am indeed a prophet, and knowing in my 

^ Hermann understands by (rvyyevelg fiijveg, menses qui mecum fiierunt, 
1. e. vitcB mece. The translation above given is susceptible of the same 
meaning. 

2 The chorus here changes its tone from that of the preceding ode very 
suddenly, and more for the advantage of the reader, (who thereby gains a 
beautiful snatch of a Greek allegro) than of its own character for consis- 
tency. Still these fond ancestral reveries in honour of a pafriot king, 
awaken in us the sense of contrast by touches almost Miltonic: themselves 
& fairy dream, they shape us out a fearful reality, *' which substance may 



40 (EDIPUS TYEANNUS. 1087—1121. 

mind, thou, Cithaeron, I swear by Olympus, shalt not, by 
to-morrow's full moon, be without experience of our extolling 
thee at least as both of one country with (Edipus, and as his 
nurse, and as his mother, nor of being visited by us in choric 
dances, as performing acceptable service to my princes. But 
O that this, O Healer Apollo, might be agreeable to thee. 
Who, O son, what daughter* of the immortals, I wonder, was 
thy mother, visited haply as a paramour by mountain-ranging 
Pan, or, since 'tis thou, by Apollo ? for to him the champaign 
downs are all endeared : or did the reigning prince of Cyllene, 
or the Bacchanalian god, whose home is on the topmost hills, 
receive thee a foundling from some one of the Heliconian 
nymphs, with whom he is oftenest frolicking ? 

(Ed. If I too have any right to conjecture, old man, Avho 
have never yet had converse with him, methinks I see that 
very herdsman, M'hom aU this while we are seeking. For in 
his extreme old age he corresponds as the contemporaiy of 
this man here ; and besides, I recognise his conductors as 
my o^^^l domestics. But in acquaintance with him thou very 
possibly mayest have the advantage of me, fi'om having seen 
the herdsman before. 

Ch. Why yes, be sm'e I do ; for I have known him, since 
he belonged to La'ius, trusty in his degree of grazier, if ever 
another were. 

CEd, Thee first I interrogate, the Corinthian stranger, is 
this the man thou meanest ? 

Mes. This very man whom thou seest. 

CEd. Ho, thou old man, look hither towards me, and 
answer to all that I shall ask thee. Wert thou ever in 
Laius' service? 

be called, yet shadow seems," and, like the funeral oration of Pericles, 
are ever linked and haunted with an opposing spirit, a mysterious double 
of what meets the ear. 

^ Hermann's alteration of the punctuation here has restored Ovyctrrjp 
to her rightful inheritance, by omitting the note of interrogation after 
fxaK^aiojVLov. If his note leave anything unexplained in full, it is the 
force of (7£ ye, which probably infers Apollo father of CEdipus, because 
the latter was so apt in solving hard sayings. Tr. — The passage is still 
unsatisfactory; and Wunder condemns both tiq Ovydrijp and as ye as cor- 
rupt. Perhaps we might read Havbg operrailSaTd ttov (or j3aTdo with 
"Wunder.) IlpocrTreXaaOilicr' elTS ak tiq Qvyarrjp Ao^iov, i. e., Havbg aire 
Ao^iov. On the omission of the first dre of. ^sch. Ag. 1403, and above 
517, Xoyotcriv ht tpyoicriv. B. 



1122—1149. OEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 41 

Servant. I was* ; a slave, not purchased, but reared in 

his house, 

(Ed, Concerned in what avocation, or manner of life? 

Ser. For the best part of my life I was in attendance on 
flocks. 

(Ed, In what places principally a resident? 

Ser, It would be Cithaeron, and it would be the adjacent 
districts, 

(Ed. Well then, knowest thou this man, having made 
acquaintance with him anywhere in these parts ? 

Ser. As doing what thing ? of what mariner of man even 
art thou speaking ? 

(Ed. This man, who is before thee : hast thou ever before 
now had dealings with him ? 

Ser, Not at least that I could readily affirm it from 
recollection. 

Mes. And no wonder either, my lord: but I will distinctly 
remind him of forgotten times ; for I am sm*e he knows when 
in the region of Cithaeron, he being with two flocks. I with 
one, I was the neighbour of this very man from spring to 
early autumn, three entire periods of six months each. And 
when now it was winter, I used on my part to drive my 
charge into sheepcotes, and he to the pens of Laius. Say I 
any of these things or say I it not as was done ? 

Ser. Thou speakest the truth, though in sooth from a 
distant time, 

Mes. Come, now tell me ; rememberest thou to have given 
me any child at that time, that I might rear it as a nursling 
to myself? 

Ser, But what means this ? wherefore inquirest thou in 
these words ? 

Mes. This, my comrade, is that very one who was then an 
infant. 

Ser. Will not perdition seize thee ? -wilt not hold thy 
peace ? 

(Ed, Hold, old man! chastise not this man, since thine 
own words have more need of a chastiser than his, 

Ser. But in what, my most gracious liege, am I in fault ? 

^ Hermann reading 7/ here, says " et hie quidem aperta est aoristi signi- 
ficario, neque id eram quisquam, sed/Mi vertit." See note on v. 793. 



42 (EDIPUS TYEANNUS. 1150—1164. 

(Ed. In not declaring the child of whom this man asks 
thee. 

See. Because he speaks knowing nothing, but labours in 
vain. 

Q5d. Thou indeed wilt not speak as a favour, but to thy 
cost thou shalt speak^ 

Ser. Do not, I pray, for the love of the gods, ill use me, 
an old man. 

(Ed. Will not some one with all speed tie this fellow's 
hands behind him ? 

Ser. Wretched man, for what purpose? what wouldst 
thou know more ? 

(Ed. Gavest thou to this man the boy of whom he questions 
thee? 

Ser. I did ; but O that I had died on that day. 

(Ed. Nay, to this thou wilt come, at least if thou speak 
not the truth. 

See. Much more certain is my destruction, if I shall 
speak. 

(Ed. This fellow, it seems, is driving at delay. 

See. Not I, truly ; but I said long ago that I had given 
the boy. 

(Ed. ^Mience having got him? of thine own house or of 
any other ? 

See. Surely I gave not my o^mi away, but I received him 
from some one. 

(Ed. From whom among these citizens, and from a house 
of what degree ? 



1 The altercation with Creon, and this scene with the shepherds, from 
the snarling repartee which runs through them, are supposed by Twining 
to be among the parts of our poet which gave occasion to the ridiculous 
idea of a comic writer in Diogenes Laertius (4. 20.) that Sophocles had 
a dog to help him write tragedies : kvojv tiq icoKei avjiTroitiv IAoKottikoc. 
That eminent translator seems to frrget that anger levels most men, and 
that of kings especially "the wrath is great;" he forgets that every pas- 
sage he has produced from Sophocles to this point, is the expression of 
angry feeling; he forgets the simplicity of the times of which he is writing. 
But when he quotes Longinus, to prove that in these places the spirit of 
Sophocles (TJSevvvTai dXoyaig, Kai ttitttei dTvxs(jraTa' putting aside that 
as to Longinus's meaning he begs the question, let him show that Longi- 
nus ever wrote naturally for ten lines together, ere he takes that really 
great critic's dictum on the expression of heated feelings. 



1165—1186. (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 4S 

Sek. Do not for the gods' sake, do not, my sovereign, 
inquire farther. 

(Ed. Thou diest, if I shall ask thee this again. 

Ser. It was then one of Laius' offspring. 

(Ed. a slave, or one by birth of kin to him ? 

Ser. Woe is me ! I am surely on the verge of speaking 
the very horror. 

(Ed. And I surely of hearing : yet it must be heard. 

Ser. Why then, it was said to be actually his own cnild : 
but the lady within could best inform thee how this stands. 

(Ed. Why, is she the donor of this child to thee ? 

Ser. Even so, sire. 

(Ed. For what purpose ? 

Ser. That I might make away with him. 

(Ed. The own mother, hard-hearted^ ? 

Ser. In horror, however, of evil prophecies. 

(Ed. Of what import ? 

Ser. There was a story, that he should be his parents' 
murderer. 

(Ed. How camest thou then to resign him to this elder ? 

Ser. Pitying it, my liege, as supposing that he would 
carry him away to another land, whence he himself was : but 
he reserved him for the direst miseries : for if thou art he 
whom this man declares thee to be, know thou art born to a 
cursed destiny. 

(Ed. Alas ! alas ! All the predictions turn out true'^. O 
light, may I look on thee now for the last time : I, that have 
been shown the son of those of whom I should not have been, 
holding commerce with those with whom it became me not, 
and having killed whom it was my duty never. 

Chorus. O generations of mortals, how as nothing do I 
reckon you in this life ! For where, where is the man that 
achieves more of happiness*, than barely so much as to fancy 

^ Erfurdt has a note here from Ruhnken's Preface to Scheller's Lexi- 
con, which seems uncalled-for. TXf/yiit means "to have the heart" to do 
any thing; and rXrJixcjv here takes this signification much better, surely, 
than that of perdita or miser. 

2 See Wunder on v. 922. B. 

3 Groti us elegantly translates: 

"Haec est sola beatitas Humano generi data, 
Quam quis dum putat accipit, Ammittitque putando.** B. 



44 CEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 1187—1237. 

he has it, and so fancying to fall away from it ? Even^ thine 
example having before me, thy destiny, even thine, O hapless 
(Edipus, I term^ nothing of mortal fortunes happy : thou 
who with excess of fortune aimed at and achieved the prize 
of all-blissful prosperity, O Jove ! having done to death the 
maiden prophetess with forked talons, nay, a bulwark against 
slaughters didst thou stand up to my country, whence also 
thou art titled my sovereign, and hast been supremely digni 
fied with honour, lording it in Thebes the mighty. But now, 
as I hear, who is more miserable ? who in reverse of state is 
more familiar with cruel griefs and troubles? Alas! Oh 
glorious majesty of CEdipus, to whom one and the same 
ample haven was enough for son and father as a bridegi'oom 
to run into : how ever, how ever were thy father's furrows 
enabled to endure thee in silence so long, unfortunate ? Time 
the all-seeing detected thee reluctant; justice long since 
sentences the marriageless marriage, begetting and begotten. 
Oh ! son of Laius, would, would that I had never seen thee. 
For I mourn with passing sorrow from loudly-plaintive lips. 
Yet to tell the truth, by thy bounty have I drawn my breath 
again, and closed mine eyes in repose. 

Messenger Extraordinary. O ye, ever respected the 
most highly of this land, what deeds shall ye hear, what 
deeds shall ye witness, how heavy a grief shall ye have to 
bear, if from a feeling of kindred ye are yet concerned for 
the house of Labdacus ? For, I believe, neither Ister, nor 
Phasis, could lave with water of purification this roof before 
you of all which it conceals : while other ills will forthwith 
show themselves to the light, ills voluntary, and not unin- 
tended. Bat of mischiefs, those are the most afflicting which 
show themselves self-incurred. 

Ch. Nay, even what we knew before lacks nought of being 
deeply deplorable : but what hast thou to tell in addition to 
those ? 

M. E. The speediest of tales both to tell and to hear : the 
most noble Jocasta is no more. 

Ch. Most unhappy woman ! By what earthly means ? 

M. E. Herself by her own hand. But of the action the 

1 Wunder more rightly reads with Camerarius rov aov toi, ** holding 
thy fortunes, yea thine, as an example." B. 

2 ovSiva is against the metre, and altered by Hermann. B. 



1238—1271. (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 45 

most painful part is spared us, since the eyewitness is not 
ours ; but yet, as far at least as the memory of them resides 
in me, thou shalt hear the sufferings of that lost princess. 
For when, instinct with fury, she passed by within the portal, 
she went straight to her bridal bed, tearing her hair with 
both her hands; and ha\dng, as soon as she was within, 
Adolently closed the doors on the inside, she cries on Laius,' 
now long since dead, bearing in memory that ancient issue 
by whose hands he was himself to die, and leave the mother 
to his own, a procreatress of wretched children. But she 
mourned over the couch where she had become, unfortunate, 
the mother of a double progeny, husbands by husband, 
children by children. And how after this she perished I 
have no farther knowledge ; for CEdipus with outcries broke 
in, for whom it was impossible for us to witness her fate to 
its end ; but we turned our eyes on him roving round. For 
he begins wildly rushing, beseeching us to furnish him with 
a weapon, and tell him where to reach "the wife yet no 
wife, his mother with her common womb for himself and his 
children." To him in his frenzy some unearthly power dis- 
covers this, for it was no one of us men who were standing 
by : but shouting fearfully, as with some guide to lead him 
he sprung in against the double doors, and from their very 
deepest fastenings he wrenched the hollow staples, and falls 
in upon the apartment ; where we then looked in upon his 
wife suspended, entangled in twisted nooses. But he, when 
he sees her, with horrible bellowings, poor wretch ! loosens 
the hanging knot ; but when the hapless was laid on the 
ground, the sequel was awful to behold : for having torn off 
from her the gold-embossed clasps* of her vestments, where- 
with she used to adorn herself, he lifted them and smote the 
balls of his own eyes, uttering words of this sort, " that 'twas 
because they had discerned for him neither what mischiefs 

1 Perhaps this was an attempt of the poet to reconcile his fair-armed 
country-women to long sleeves, they having lost the privilege of the Trepovai 
by their inhuman conduct towards the sole survivor of the disastrous 
jEginetan expedition. See Herod, v. 87; on which place Larcher quotes 
an old scholiast, to prove that the Lacedaemonians adopted this dress with 
clasps in order to make their women masculine, and the Athenians the 
Ionian with a view to the opposite effect. As the Argive ladies wore 
large clasps on this same event taking place, 'tis to be hoped they did 
not worship Juno in vain. 



4$ OEDIPUS TYRANNUS. 1272—1307. 

he was suffering, nor what he was doing ; but darkly should 
they see, for the time to come, those whom he ought never 
to have seen, nor should they recognise those whom he so 
longed to recognise." Venting curses such as these full 
often, and not once only^ did he wound them, forcing up his 
eyelids. And at once the bloody pupils bedewed his cheeks, 
nor emitted mere humid drops of gore, but all at once, a 
shower of sable blood-clot hail was shed*. These are miseries 
that broke forth of two, not of him alone, but the consorted 
miseries of a husband and a wife. For their happiness of a 
long date before, 'twas hitherto deserving of the name ; but 
now, on this very day, lamentation, ruin, death, dishonour, of 
whatsoever ill whatever name there be, not one is wanting. 

Ch. But in what respite from ill is the sufferer now ? 

M. E. He is shouting for some one to op6n the barriers, 
and expose to all the race of Cadmus the slayer of his father, 
his mother's — uttering unholy things, things not for me to 
speak ; purposing seemingly to make himself an outcast from 
the land, nor any longer to tarry in his home accursed, as he 
cursed himself Yet still he wants strength at least, and 
some one for his guide : since his disease is greater than he 
can bear. Nay, he will show thee so himself. For these 
fastenings of the gates are being opened, and speedily shalt 
thou behold a spectacle of such a sort as even an enemy must 
pity. 

Ch. Oh, disaster fearful to mankind to behold ! Oh most 
fearful of all that I have ever yet encountered ! What 
frenzy, sad sufferer, beset thee? What demon is it that, 
with mightier than the mightiest bound, hath sprung on 
thine unblest fate ? Woe, woe, unfortunate ! But I cannot 
so much as look on thee, anxious as I am to question much, 
much to learn, and much to see, such shuddering dost thou 
cause me. 

(Ed. Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, alas, alas, wretch that I am ! 
whither on earth am I, miserable, carried ? Where is flitting 

* Hermann joins the words TroWaKig re kovk liira^ with IcpvixvuJv, and 
says of Elrasley's punctuation that it gives a meaning "justo crudelius." 
The imperfect ijpaffat, however, favours the old way of rendering. Potter 
translates as Hermann. 

2 The two following verses are bracketed by Dindorf, and considered 
coiTupt by Wunder. B. 



1308—1359. CEDIPUS TYEANNUS. 47 

this voice which I hear thus hurriedly? Oh, fate, whither 
hast thou leaped ? 

Ch. To horror, not fit for hearing, nor for sight. 

CEd. O cloud of my darkness, abominable, falling upon me 
unspeakable, in that thou art alike unconquerable, and all- 
prosperous to ray bane. Ah me ! Ah me ! again and again, 
Ah me ! How hath sunk deep within me hand in hand at 
once the maddening sting of these goads, and the memory of 
my woes ! 

Ch. And surely it is no wonder, in afflictions great as 
these, that thou hast a double sorrow, and bearest double ills. 

CEd. O my friend, thou as mine adherent art still constant, 
for still dost thou submit to care for me the blind. Alas ! 
alas ! for thou escapest me not, but well do I know thee, 
darkened though I be, at least thy voice. 

Ch. O thou of dreadful deeds, how hadst thou the heart 
thus to mangle thine eyes ? What higher power prompted 
thee to it ? 

(Ed. Apollo was he, Apollo, O my friends, that brought 
to pass these my, my wretched sufferings. But no one wil- 
fully pierced them, but hapless I. For what need had I of 
sight, I, to whom when seeing there was nought sweet to 
look on? 

Ch. This was so, even as thou sayest, 

CEd. What then, I pray, have I, object of sight, of love, 
of accost, that I could hear any longer with pleasure, my 
friends ? Bear me away from the place with all speed, bear 
me away, my friends, the monstrous destruction, the most 
accm'sed, and most god-detested of human kind. 

Ch. O lamentable alike in thy feeling and thy fate, how 
have I wished that I at least had never known thee ! 

(Ed. Perish he, whosoever he be, that took me from the 
barbarous chain that pastured on my feet, and rescued and 
preserved me from a violent death earning a thankless return ; 
for had I died then, I had not been so great a sorrow to my 
friends nor self. 

Ch. This would have been to my wish also. 

QEd. Ay, then I had not come the slayer of my father at 
least, nor been titled by mankind the bridegroom of those of 
whom I sprung. But now am I a godless being, child of 
unholy parents, allied to those from whom I >vi'etched drew 



48 (EDIPU8 TYRANNUS. 1360—1394. 

my birth. But if there be in kind one evil among evils 
paramount, this to his share hath (Edipus. 

Ch. I know not how to say that thou hast well advised: 
for thou wert better to live no longer than live in blindness. 

(Ed. That this hath not been best done thus, tutor me not, 
nor counsel me longer. For I know not with what manner 
of eyes beholding, I could have looked my father in the face 
when I went down to Hades*, no, nor my hapless mother, to 
both of whom deeds have been done by me that hanging is 
too good for. But forsooth the sight of my children was to 
be coveted by me to see, springing forth as they sprung. 
No, to my eyes never: nor citadel, nor tower, nor sacred 
images of gods, whereof I the all-unhappy, noblest by birth 
of any one at least in Thebes, have bereaved mine own self, 
myself enjoining all to thrust out the impious one, the man 
branded of heaven as polluted'* [and proved to be] of the race 
of Laius, could I, who had exposed such a blot in mine own 
person, ever look on these with steadfast eyes? No, never, 
surely ! Nay, had there been yet means of stoppage of the 
fountain of hearing through my ears, I would not have re- 
frained from blocking up my miserable body, that I might 
have been both sightless and devoid of hearing*: for to have 
one's feelings abiding beyond reach of one's misfortunes were 
sweet. Alas, Cithseron, wherefore harbouredst thou me? 
wherefore having taken me in didst thou not forthwith kill 
me, that I had never shown mankind the lineage whence I 
sprang*? Polybus and Corinth, and ancient halls, reputed 

^ The ancients believed that whatever defects or injuries men suffered 
during life, they carried with them to the shades helow. Thus in Virgil, 
^n. vi. 450, jEneas meets Dido " recens a vulnere/' and 495, " Dei- 
phobum vidit, lacerum crudeliter ora." So Clytsemnestra says in iEscb. 
Eum. 103, opa Se TrXrjydg raaSi. B. 

2 Hermann's punctuation has been followed here in joining koi ysvovg 
rov Aatov to the next Une. Tr. — I have preferred following Dindorf and 
Wunder. B. 

2 '' Hie etsi imperfectum recte se habet, ui essem caicus et surdus, 
tamen etiam aoristo locus est, ut f actus essem ccbcus et surdus, verbo ri 
idem quod syevo/irjv significante." Herm. Pref. see note on v. 793. 

** Hermann, reading i]v, observes that here, if anywhere, an aorist 
might be thought needful, to express the sense wg tSeiEa firfTvon tvOev 
iyEvvr]6t]v. But though rj without the participle would stand for tyev' 
pr]9r)v, with it ij will not, because yeywg implies time present, and thus 
i] ytydjg would be unde natus fuissem, a proper expression of one once. 



1393—1433. (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 49 

my ancestors', what a goodly outside skin of scars beneath 
have ye reared me ! For now am I discovered vile, and of 
the vile. O ye three roads, and thou concealed dell, and 
oaken copse, and naiTOw outlet of three ways, which drank 
mine own blood from my father, shed by mine own hands, do 
ye remember me how that I — what deeds having done to you, 
then came hither, and again what deeds I perpetrated? O 
bridals, bridals, ye have begotten us, and having begotten, 
again ye brought to light the selfsame seed, and display fa- 
thers, brothers, sons, blood all of one tribe, brides, wives 
and mothers, and all the deeds that are most infamous among 
mankind. But, for it is not fitting to utter what neither is it 
fitting to do, with all speed, in heaven's name, hide me some- 
where far away, or slay me, or set me adrift on the sea, 
where never again ye shall behold me. Come, deign to touch 
a wretch forlorn. Be prevailed on, fear not; for evils such 
as mine no mortal but I is liable to bear. 

Ch. But for what thou requestest at an apt moment comes 
Creon here, to act or to advise, since he is left sole protector 
of the realm in thy room. 

CEd. Woe is me ! In what words then shall we address 
him? ^Vhat trust shall therein reason be shown to me by 
him ? For in the former transactions have I been discovered 
altogether base towards him. 

CuEoisr. Not as a scoffer, (Edipus, have I come, nor to 
reproach thee with any of the former wrongs. But do ye, if 
ye no longer blush before the race of man, at all events respect 
more the fire of the royal sun that feeds all things, than to 
exhibit a pollution such as this thus uncovered, which neither 
earth, nor heaven-sent^ rain, nor light will put up with. But 
as speedily as possible convey him to his home ; for that those 
of the family alone should see and hear the miseries of a rela- 
^tive, is what piety requires. 
,^ (Ed. For the gods' sake, since thou hast forced me from 

^ expectation by coming the noblest of men as thou art, to 

-.longer alive: elfii yeydjg then standing for the present, yv ysyu)Q 

_ from a pluperfect an imperfect ; and if by the laws of the language 

^^'9iv eifxi yiyojq, when changed by a person speaking of a past 

"4 .have required w^ eStt^a tvOtv ifv ytywg, then is the latter 

v^,re. See note on v. 793. 

"^ , So diag \haKd^og, Eurip. Helen. 2. B. 



50 CEDIPUS TYHANNUS. 1434—146'^. 

me the vilest, concede one thing to me, for I will speak t". 
thy interest and not mine. 

Cr. And to obtain what demand art thou thus urgent with 
me? 

CEd. Cast me out from this land with ', hat haste thou 
mayest, where I shall be found by no earthly being to be 
spoken with. 

Cr. I had done it, of this be satisfied, had I not first of 
all been anxious to learn from the divinity what was to be 
done. 

OEd. But surely his whole prophetic answer openly 
ordered to put to death the parricide, the impious, myself. 

Cr. So this was said; but still in the emergency wherein 
we are placed, 'twere better to learn what is to be done. 

CEd. Will ye then thus inquire on behalf of a creature 
utterly fallen ? 

Cr. Yes ; for even thou surely^ mightest now give credit 
to the god. 

(Ed. To thee then do I solemnly give charge, and will 
exhort thee too ; of her within the house make such sepulture 
as thou choosest, for duly wilt thou perform this on behalf ol 
thine own at leasts But me, never let this, the city of my 
fathers, deign to admit a living inhabitant ; no, suffer me to 
abide in the mountains, where is that very Cithaeron surnamed 
mine, which both my father and mother allotted to me yet 
living as my proper tomb, that I may die by their counsel, 
v/ho were indeed my destroyers. And yet this much at least 
I know, that neither disease nor any other chance shall be 
my downfall ; for never had I been saved in the hour of death, 
imless for some dreadful evil. But for my fate, let it go which 
way soever it will : but for my children, on the males I would 
not, Creon, thou shouldest concern thyself more; they are 
men, so that they never can feel a scarcity of sustenanc 
wherever they shall chance to be: but on my hapless a^ 
pitiable girls, before whom was never my table laid witW, 

bo ri 

* T&v, scil. roi av. See v. 1446 (ed. Herm.) and Eurip. ?♦'. 
1011. Person. a aorist 

2 Jocasta being his sister. The confidence reposed by CEdj/ore tvQiv 
who was afterwards to appear as the infringer of these most;rtid for lysv- 
and that towards CEdipus's son and his own nephew, i?,^ent, and thus 
the poet's usual refinement of art. .sion of one once. 



1464—1501. (EDIPTIS TYRANNXTS. 51 

food, wanting my o\vn presence, but of all that I touched 
were they two ever the partakers : for whom do thou interest 
thee for my sake; and above all, suffer me to feel them with 
mine hands, and pour a last lament over their misfortunes. 
Do it, O prince do it, O thou thyself of pure lineage and 
noble. Surely if I touched them with these hands, I should 
fancy I held them, even as when I had my sight. What 
shall I say? Tell me, in the name of the gods, do I not 
surely hear my darlings crying? And has Creon in compas- 
sion sent me the best beloved of my children? Am I right? 

Ck. Thou art right ; for I am he that supplied thee with 
these babes, having known the yet lively delight which from 
old time possessed thee in them. 

CEd. Then all happiness to thee, and for this their coming 
may thy tutelary power protect thee better than me. My 
children, where can ye be ? draw near hither, come to these 
my fraternal hands, which have thus served the once bright 
eyes of the author of your being for you to see ; of me, my 
children, who without sight, without question of it, was 
proved your father by that source from whence myself had 
been raised. And for you I weep, for I have no power to 
behold you, in imagining the rest of your bitter life, Avith 
what treatment at men's hands ye are doomed to live it out. 
For to what social meetings of the citizens will ye come? 
nay, to what festivals, whence ye will not betake yourselves 
home all in tears in place of enjoyment from the scene^ . 
But when at length ye shall have come to marriageable years, 
who will be he ? who will rashly risk, my children, to incur 
such scandals as will be destruction to those at once my 
parents and yours ? For what horror is wanting ? your father 
murdered his father ; committed incest with that mother 
whose seed he was himself, and fr'om the self- same source 
whence he was born, begat himself you. In such sort vnM 
-e be reviled ; and then who will espouse you ? There is not 

-nan, my children; but too plainly is it your destiny to pine 

'Musgrave's references to -^schylus's Choephorse, vv. 450 and 719 

■ym.) be correct, and they are approved by Abreschius and Blotn- 

"lassage cannot stand as the former edition, following Brunck, 

"from whence ye will not return lamented rather than the 

'"ited;" because KEKXavukvai in neither of those passages 

^e, and is by Blomfield translated lachrymis perfusus, 

E 2 



52 (EDIPUS TYRANNUS. 1501 — 1527. 

to death barren and unwedded. But since, O son of Menoeceus, 
thou art left sole father to these twain, for we their natural 
parents are both fallen victims to destruction, do not thou 
look on and see them, thy kindred, beggars, husbandless, 
wanderers, nor make them sharers in my woes; but pity 
them, seeing them as thou dost at their tender years destitute 
of every thing, except as far as thy part goes. Accord this, 

noble sir, pledging me with thine hand. But to you, my 
children, if ye had already understanding, I would have 
given much advice ; but now^ pray this on my behalf, that 

1 may ever live where it is for me to live, and may ye meet 
with a better life than that of the father who begot you. 

Cr. Enough of tears hast thou shed, go now within doors. 

CEd. I must needs obey, though it be no pleasing thing. 

Cr. Why, all things are becoming in their season. 

QSd. Know you then on what conditions I will go ? 

Ck. Thou shalt tell me, and hearing I shall then know. 

OEd. That thou wilt send me into exile from this land. 

Cr. Thou askest me what is the gods' to give. 

CEt>. But to the gods at least I come most odious. 

Cr. Wherefore, be sure thou shalt be quickly gratified. 

(Ed. Say est thou so then ? 

Cr. Yes, for what I mean not I am not wont idly to say. 

(Ed. Away with me then from this spot now. 

Cr. Proceed then, and let go thy children. 

(Ed. By no means take these at least from me. 

Cr. Seek not to have thy way in every thing, for that 
wherein thou hadst thy will conduced not to thy welfare in 
life. 

Chorus. inhabitants of Thebes my country, behold, this 
(Edipus, who solved the famous enigma, and was the most 
exalted of mankind, who looking with no envious eye^ upon 
the enviable fortunes of the citizens, into how vast a stormy 

* evx^<yOe cannot, I think, be taken passively, and I have therefc 
followed Dindorf, whose emendation is also adopted by Wunder. ^ 
KaipoQ there is, I think, a double meaning, both of the fated spot v ^ 
CEdipus should dwell or die, and a reference to its ordinary mear 
less shocking to the hearers. B. dorist 

2 Erfurdt has a long and excellent note on the word 67ri/3\E7r'* ^i^^^^ 
he shows to answer exactly the Latin "invidens." Herma/ '^^^ *y^^" 
hfis ,been followed for the rest. Tr. — I have given the he,'^^> ^^^ ^^^^ 
pasjs^e ia my power, but I stiE think ZrjX(^ kuI tvxo-ic '^ of one once. 



1528—1530. (EDIPUS TYKANNUS. 53 

sea of tremendous misery he hath come ! Then mortal as thou 
art, looking out for a sight of that day, the last*, call no 
man happy, ere he shall have crossed the boundary of life, 
the sufferer of nought painful. 

"or ZrjXioToig TvxaiQ, and that ^ijX^ would be more- naturally joined with 
tuTLJSXsTrcjv. Should we read — roXtrwj/ rac r^\;af t7rt/3X£7ra»v? B. 
1 " The first dark day of nothingness. 
The last of danger and distress," 
says Lord Byron, and so said (in part at least) Solon before hira. But 
Aristotle, who was not a man to adopt hypothesis for fact, whether sup- 
ported by poet or philosopher, disputing the first axiom in toto^ brings 
the second into considerable doubt. Eth. 1. 



1—15. 



(EDIPUS COLONEUS 



CEdipus, banished from Thebes, comes to Athens under the guidance of 
his daughter Antigone, in fulfilment of an oracle, which declared that he 
should end his days near the wood of the Eumenides. Creon makes an 
unsuccessful attempt to carry him back to Thebes, as also Polynices, 
as the oracle had declared that victory would attend those among 
whom (Edipus should die. But (Edipus remains firm, and having 
charged Theseus concerning his future conduct, he disappears amidst a 
fearful storm, and the place of his burial is handed down to none save 
the perpetual successors to the throne of Athens. B. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 



(Edipus. 

Antigone. 

CiTIZKN OF COLONXJS. 

Chorus of Attic Elders. 

ISMENE. 



Theseus. 
Creon. 
Polynices. 
Messenger. 



(Edipus. Child of a blind old man, Antigone, to what 
regions are we come, or city of what people ? who will wel- 
come CEdipus the wanderer for the present day with scantiest 
alms, craving but little, yet obtaining even less than that 
little, and that sufficient for me? For to be content my 
sufferings, and time so long my familiar, and thirdly my 
native nobleness, teaches me. But, my child, if thou be- 
holdest any seat, either by the common haunts of men, or 
by the groves of the deities, place me and seat me there, 
that Ave may inquire where, after all, we are. For we are 
come strangers, to learn of citizens, and perform that which 
we shall have heard. 

Antigone. My Avoe- worn father, ffidipus, there are towers, 
which impale^ a city, to judge by mine eye, at some distance. 

1 (TTfyovaiv. Reisig translates this occulunt, Hermann continent, 
adding " quod qui ita dictum putant, ut tueri urbera turres signiticentur, 
non ita absurdi sunt; prsesertim quum vix dubitari possit, quin arx Athe- 
narum sit intelligenda. Certe ^Eschylus sic Sept. ad Ihebas 803, dixisse 



16^42. (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 55 

But this spot here is consecrated, as one may certainly con- 
elude, all full with the bay, the olive, the \ine, while within 
it dense flocks of winged nightingales are singing sweetly: 
where bend thou thy limbs upon this unpolished stone, for 
thou hast travelled onward a long way for an old man. 

CEd. Seat me, then, and take care of the blind. 

AxT. If but for long time's sake I need not learn this. 

(Ed. Canst thou now instruct me were we have halted ? 

Ant. That it is Athens at any rate I know, but the spot 
I do not. 

CEd. ^Miy, this* at least every wayfarer told us. 

A^T. But shall I go somewhere and learn what place it is? 

CEd. Yes, my child ; that is to say, if it be habitable. 

Ant. Nay, it is actually inhabited. But I think there is 
no need, for I see this man here close to us. 

CEd. "What, walking hitherward and quick in motion ? 

Ant. Nay, now present indeed : and whatever is season- 
able for thee to say, speak it, since here is the man. 

CEd. Friend, hearing from this female, who uses sight 
both on her o\^^l behalf and mine, that thou art come a 
guide opportune for us to tell us that about which we are 
uncertain 

CoLONEAN. Ere now thou question further, retire from 
this thy resting-place ; for thou occupiest a spot whereon it is 
not pious to set foot. 

CEd. But what is the spot? to which of the gods is it 
dedicated ? 

CoL. It is not to be touched nor dwelt in : for the awful 
goddesses possess it, daughters of Earth and Darkness. 

CEd. Whose august name might I, hearing it, worship in 
prayer ? 

Col. The all-seeing Eumenidae the people here at least 

videtur GTsyti de irvpyog'" From the appearance of the Acropolis it might 
be translated "crown:" yet perhaps Reisigius is right, for Colonus is 
north of Athens; and up to the time of Theseus the greater part of the 
city was builc on the rock and to the south of it, as proved, says Phucy- 
dides, by the site of the most ancient temples at Athens. Tr. — Wander 
follows Wakefield's conjecture, (7T(<pov(nv. B. 

^ " ^^Tiy, this," WTiether we look to the general arrangement of these 
short dialogues, or to the more important point of propriety in the charac- 
ters, we shall be equally convinced that this peevish rejoinder is rightly 
assigned to CEdipus. 



56 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 43 — 65. 

would call them: but other names are in other places in 
esteem. 

CEd. But O that they would but kindly receive their sup- 
pliant—then may I no more remove from my seat on this 
their soil. 

CoL. Nay, what is this ? 

(Ed. The watchword of my destiny. 

CoL. But I too lack boldness without the city's warrant 
to dislodge thee, at least ere I shall communicate to them 
what I do^ 

QEd. Now for the love of heaven, stranger, disdain me not 
a wanderer such as this, the boon I ask of thee, to tell me. 

CoL. Specify it, and thou shalt not find thyself repulsed 
in scorn by me at least. 

CEd. But what place is this then, into which we have 
proceeded ? 

CoL. Thou shalt hear and be acquainted with the whole 
amount of that which I know. This region is all hallowed ; 
and the venerable Nepture possesses it' ; there too is the fire- 
wielding divinity, the Titan Prometheus : but for the place 
on which thou steppest, is is titled the brazen-paved cause- 
way of this land, defence of Athens : but the neighbouring 
lands claim proudly this the knight Colonus as their chieftain, 
and all bear his name in common being thus designated. 
Such is this account for thee, stranger, not renowned in 
story, but rather by custom*. 

CEd. Why, are there any dwellers in these said regions? 

CoL. Ay, surely, even the bearers of this deity's name. 

^ Ti dpdv is Hermann's reading, after Reisigius, which makes the 
meaning much less obvious. 

2 "its master." Paasanias speaks of altars in Colonus to equestrian 
Minerva and Neptune, and mentions an altar to Prometheus in the 
Academy, formerly a starting-place for those who contended in the game 
XaiJ.7raSr](popia. The scholiast says that there were brazen mines at 
Colonus. 

3 " not renowned in story, but rather among the neighbourhood." 
Brunck's idea is very different, ''non fama magis quam ipso usu nota," 
which if it be adopted, the sentiment may be referred to Athens in general ; 
which " ixovrj tCov vvv ciKofjg Kpsiaaojv kg Treipav epx^Tai." Thucyd. 2. 
Tr. — I have followed the Scholiast and Reisig. But since the stranger 
pointed to the statue of Colonus near at hand, it is probable that he also 
alludes to the presence of their chieftain among them, fiovov must of 
course be supplied with Xoyoig. B. 



66—93. (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 57 

(Ed. Does any one sway them, or is the authority in the 
people } 

CoL. These parts are governed hy the king in the city. 

(Ed, But who is he pre-eminent both in right and power ? 

Coii. His name is Theseus, offsj)ring of ^geus his prede- 
cessor. 

(Ed. Would any one of you go to fetch him ? 

CoL. With a A-iew to what, to speak to him, or induce him 
to come^ ? 

(Ed. That lending a little aid he may reap a great gain. 

CoL. And what advantage can there be at the hands of a 
sightless being ? 

(Ed. ^\Tiatsoever words we shall speak, we shall speak 
them all clear-sighted. 

CoL. Knowest thou', stranger, how in this case to guard 
against failure ? since noble art thou, to another's eye, save 
in thy condition. Tarry here, even where thou hast ap- 
peared, until I shall repair to the burghers of this place here, 
not those in the city, and report to them all this. For they 
at least will determine whether it be fit for thee to remain, or 
go thy way back again. 

(Ed. My child, has the stranger quitted us ? 

Ant. He has so, wherefore thou mayst utter everything in 
peace, my father, since I alone am by. 

(Ed. Ye reverend powers of dread aspect, forasmuch as I 
have this day inclined me to the seats of you the first in this 
country, be not ungracious to Phoebus and to me, who spake 
to me, when he foretold those numerous ills of mine, of this 
respite in a long lapse of time, when I should arrive at the 
boundary-land, where I should obtain a resting-place and 
hospitable shelter from the venerable deities, that I should 
here turn the goal of my wearisome existence, dwelling as a 
gain to my hosts', but ruin to my dismissers, who thrust me 

^ " Frnstra STint conjecturse doctorum Tironim, quas commemoravit 
Elmsleius. Nam sana est veterum libromm scriptura, quae sic est accipi- 
enda: wq Trpbg tl fioXtlv Xk^ujv f} KarapTvawv;" Herm. — This seems 
scarcely satisfactory. I think the participles should refer to Theseus in this 
sense: "wherefore should he come, what bidding? what arranging?" B. 

^oiff^'wf. This is a similar construction with oI<T0'a)f Troij^cTov. CEd. 
Tyr. 542, on which see Hermann's note. 

2 Such is surely the simplest way of taking the words Kspdrj fitv oi'k//- 
travTu Tolg hdeyfihoLg. Reisig and Wunder are not happy in their defence 



58 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 94—130. 

forth : but that signs as pledges of these things should visit 
me, either earthquake or some peal of thunder, or flash of 
Jove's lightnin.g. I am sure then that it cannot be but 
that faithful omen from you hath brought me home by this 
my present journey to this grove ; else had I never wending 
on my way encountered you the first : I sober, you averse to 
wine^ ; nor had I seated me on this hallowed unhewn seat. 
But grant me, ye goddesses, according to the oracles of 
Apollo, at length some accomplishment and final close of life, 
unless I seem to you too debased for this, I perpetually a 
slave to hardships the extremest man can bear. Come, ye 
sweet daughters of primeval Darkness, come, thou Athens of 
all cities the most esteemed, assigned by fame to Pallas the 
mightiest, compassionate this woe-begone phantom of a man 
in OEdipus ; for indeed this is not my original frame. 

Ant. Be silent, for there are now wending hither some 
personages advanced in years, to take survey of thy resting- 
place. 

(Ed. Yes, silent I will be, and do thou guide my footsteps 
secretly out of the road to within the grove, until I shall 
have ascertained from these what words they will utter : for 
in such knowledge is centred wariness of action. 

Chorus. Look out, who, I wonder was he ? where abides 
he ? where is he, having hurried from this place, of all men, 
ay, of all the most reckless? Enquire for him, spy him out, 
look for him everywhere'^. A vagrant, some vagrant is the 
old man, and not a native, or he would never have trespassed 
on the untrodden plantation of these invincible virgins, whom 
we tremble to name, and pass by without a glance, without a 
of the phrase o'lKeiv Kspdr] — oiKrjaLv oiKtlv KepSaXsav, especially as KepSt] 
may be put for KspdaXsujg. Hermann reads oiKicravTa, which seems 
harsh. I cannot help thinking that ovpiaavTa is the true reading, 
*' wafting a gale of profit." Cf- (Ed. Col. 695. dkvovaav kut opdbv 
ovpiaag. In ^Esch. Pers. 602, I think ovp'uiv rvxVG means: " to waft 
a prosperous breeze," and that tvxtjg is not to be taken with laijiova. 
Eurip. Andr. 610. a\X 'oi) tl Tcivry gov (ppovtifj, kirovpiaaQ. In Troch. 
827, we have KarovpiZuv intransitive. 

^ "you averse to wine." ' Wine was never used in the sacrifices 
offered to the Furies. Hence the Chorus, in enjoining CEdipus to pro- 
pitiate the goddesses, expressly command him, fxrjSe Trpoacpsptiv fiiOv, not 
to present wine.' Dale. 

2 "Enquire for him." Hermann reads TrpogirtvOov, Xiiiaak yiv, Trpog- 
depKov TravTaxij' 



131—167. CEDIPUS COLONEUS. 59 

sound, without a word, uttering in silence the language of 
reverential thought alone, but whom now there is a tale that 
one has come in no wise reverencing, whom I looking round 
the whole sacred precincts cannot learn where he can possibly 
be staying. 

CEd. Here am I, that man ; for by the voice I see, as is 
the byword^. 

Ch. Alas ! Alas ! fearful to see, fearful to hear. 

QEd. Pray you look not on me as lawless. 

Ch. Now Jove protect us ! who can the old man be ? 

(Ed. By no means one to congratulate on his fortunes 
being of the first order, ye guardians of this land. Nay, I 
evince it ; for else had I not been creeping thus by light of 
eyes not mine own, nor, bulky, been leaning on the slender'^. 

Ch. Alas! alas! and wast thou blind of eyes from thy 
birth, since thou art at least grown old in this wretched life, 
methinks ? But yet, if I for my part can help it, thou shalt 
never add to them these curses : for thou trespassest, thou 
trespassest ; but beware thou stray not into this silent grassy 
grove, where the limpid basin flows blended with the gush of 
honied draughts. Wherefore, all-hapless stranger, beware 
thou well ; remove thee, away. A long way separates us^ ; 
dost hear, O woe-begone wanderer ? If thou wilt offer any 
parley in conversation with me, having quitted the prohi- 

1 Cf. *' Beaux Stratagem," Act i. sc. 1, "Yes, sir, Vm old Will. 
Boniface, pretty well known upon this road, as the saxjing is." B. 

2 Reisig. conjectures here Ittl (TfiLtcpag, and quotes v. 750. (746-7. 
Brunck.) Hermann paraphrases the passage thus: "Sum ego profecto 
infortunatisbimus : aliter enim non ita alienorum ope oculorum venissem, 
et exigui muneris causa, qui magnus atque insignis vir sum, hoc in portu 
constitissem." The contrast Qildipus expresses (according to the trans- 
lation) being to a general rule, there seems no impropriety in applying 
a[.LiKpolg, as it stands, to Antigone. The allusion to his and his daughter's 
appearance is certainly most pathetic, and in the manner of Euripides; 
for the difference between these poets seems to have been, not in their 
knowledge of the means, but their choice of the end. Here, accordingly, 
for a transitory purpose^ to move the pity of his hosts, CEdipus alludes to 
his helpless condition of body; his end carried, he opens loftier views, 
and speaks to a loftier impulse, as in a nobler auditor. Euripides would 
have remained content with the first effect, 

3 kparvei. Hermann agrees with the scholiast in supposing these words 
to indicate a fear on the pai-t of the Chorus lest QEdipus should not hear 
them. 



60 (EDIPUS COI-OJCEUS. 168—201. 

bited precincts for a spot where all are permitted, then speak ; 
but before that refrain thee. 

CEd. Daughter, to what opinion may one come ? 

Ant. My father, we needs must behave ourselves as the 
citizens do, yielding where it needs, and obeying. 

CEd. Now then take hold of me. 

Ant. Even now I touch thee. 

(Ed. Strangers, let me not be wronged for trusting to 
thee*, in quitting my station. 

Ch. Never fear that any one shall ever carry thee from 
these abodes, old man, against thy consent. 

(Ed. Forward, then ? 

Ch. Go further on. 

CEd. Still? 

Ch. Lead him, damsel, farther on, for thou understandest 
us. 

Ant. Nay follow, foUow me thus with unwary'^ foot, my 
father, by the way I am leading thee. 

^1 * Si- is- -K- il- ^ 

Ch. Resolve thee', poor sufferer, strange in a strange land, 
to detest whatever the city holds by nature odious, and what 
is welcome to it to respect. 

(Ed. Do thou now, my child, lead me, that we may at 
once, adopting a pious course, be partly speakers, partly 
listeners, and not war with necessity. 

Ch. Here, no farther move thy foot beyond this terrace 
firm as rock. 

(Ed. Thus? 

Ch. Enough, as thou hearest. 

(Ed. Must I be seated here ? 

Ch. Yes, edgeways on the end of the stone, bending short. 

Ant. My father, this is my duty, see thou quietly adjust 
ftiy step by my step — 

CEd. Ah me, ah me I 

Ant. Leaning forward thine aged body on my friendly 
hand. 

1 "to thee." Speaking to the Coryphaeus now, to the Chorus before. 

2 It is better to take duavpip KojXqj for "caeco " with Wunder, than for 
"infirmo" with Brunck. Cf. Virg. -^n. vi. 30, "caeca regens filo ves- 
tigia." B. 

3 So in Latin, " Aude, hospes, contemnere opes." B. 



202—233. (EDIPUS COLONETJS. 61 

CEd. Woe is me for my grievous calamity ! 

Ch. Unfortunate, now that thou yieldest*, tell us, who of 
men art thou ? who art thou, who thus rife of misery, art led 
about ? what country should I learn by asking to be thine ? 

(Ed. Strangers, I have no country, but do not — 

Ch. What is this thou warnest me against, old man ? 

CEd. Do not, do not, do not ask me whom I am, nor 
examine me with further question. 

Ch. What is this ? 

QEd. Horrible is my generation. 

Ch. Speak it. 

CEd. My child. Oh me, what am I to say ? 

Ch. TeU as o\ what extraction thou art, stranger, by the 
father's side. 

CEd. Oh ! woe is me ! what will become of me, mine own 
child? 

Ant. Tell them, since thou art indeed come to the utmost 
pass. 

QEd. Nay, I will tell it, for I have no means of concealing it. 

Ch. Ye delay a long while, but make haste. 

CEd. Xnow ye any son of Laius ? 

Ch. O! 0! 0! 

GEd. And the line of the LabdacidaB? 

Ch. Great god ! 

CEd. The lost CEdipus ? 

Ch. And art thou he ? 

CEd. Be not alarmed at what I say. 

Ch. AlasM 

CEd. Ah wretched me ! 

Ch. Alas! 

CEd. My daughter, what in the world will presently befall us ? 

Ch. Get ye fer away out of this land. 

CEd. But how wilt thou make good that which thou 
promisedst ? 

Ch. Doomed vengeance visits no man for that in which he 
has been the first outraged, to retaliate; but one deceit 
matched against other deceits requites the feeling of pain, 
not pleasure. But do thou, again an outcast from these 

^ XaXag, v. line 844. 

2 These three following lines have been made into one, and assigned to 
the Chorus, by Hermann. B. 



^62 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 234—276. 

abodes, again in banishment from this my land, hurry away, 
that thou attach no further trouble to my country. 

Ant. O strangers, compassionate at heart, since ye cannot 
brook the presence of this my blind father, when ye hear the 
confession of involuntary deeds, yet, I beseech you, strangers, 
show pity to wretched me, who in behalf of my father alone 
implore, implore you, looking in your eyes with eyes not 
sightless, as one that is clearly sprung from your bloody that 
the unfortunate may meet with respect : on you as on a god 
do hapless we depend ; but come ye, accord the unlooked for 
favour, I beseech thee by all that from thyself is dear to thee, 
be it child, be it wife, be it pelf, or deity. For thou couldst 
not, wert thou to search, discover the mortal, who, if a higher 
power led him on, could escape. 

Ch. Nay, be sure, child of QEdipus, that we compassionate 
him and thee equally on the score of your distress : but 
trembling for heaven's vengeance we could not speak a word 
beyond what has now been said to thee. 

(Ed. What profit is there then in glory, or what in good 
report that vainly glides away ? If men forsooth repoi-t that 
Athens is most devout to heaven, that she alone is capable of 
delivering the oppressed stranger, that she alone has power 
to aid him, and yet to me where is all this ? ye men who, 
having moved me from these seats, are then for di'iving me 
away, terrified at a mere name ? For surely it is not at my 
person at least, nor yet my deeds, since in good truth my 
deeds have been sufiered rather than done*, if I am compelled 
to speak to thee of my mother's and father's fate, on which 
account ye are scared at me. This I know full well. And 
yet how am I by nature wicked, who sufiering retorted, so 
that had I done it in consciousness, I had not even thus been 
reprobate ? But now have I come to where I have come in 
ignorance, but by those from whom I suffered, they well 
knowing what they did, was I doomed to destruction. . For 
all which things I entreat you by the gods, strangers, as ye 
have raised me up, even so preserve me. And do not, re- 

1 Hermann here adopts the first explanation of the scholiast, wg dv rig 
Koivfig dvOpiOTrorrjrog 'ixovaa to avyysveg. Reisig thinks the address 
is made to the Chorus as to parents. 

2 Thus Lear : " I am a man 

More sinned against than sinning." 



277—304. (EDIPXXS COLONEUS. 63 

verencing the gods, thereupon make the gods of no account, 
but believe that they look on the mortal who is pious, and 
that they no less look on the impious, but that never yet has 
there been escape of any man among men ineligious : with 
whose grace* do thou beware orf obscuring heaven-blest 
Athens by truckling to unholy practices. But as thou hast 
accepted the suppliant under thy pledge, rescue and preserve 
me ; nor looking on my disfigured head despise me. For I 
am come, hallowed and pious, and bearing advantage to these 
thy fellow-townsmen. But when the sovereign, whoever he 
be that is your chieftain, shall be present, then shall he hear 
and know all; but in the interim, by no means do thou 
basely. 

Ch. Much necessity is there to be awed at the sentiments 
uttered by thee, old man ; for they have been specified in no 
light words : but I am content that the princes of our land 
take cognizance of these matters. 

OEd. And where, strangers, is he that lords this your 
country ? 

Ch. He resides in the city his fathers held in our land ; 
but the messenger who fetched* me also hither is gone to 
bring him. 

CEd. And think ye that he will have any regard or care 
for the blind, that he himself should come near me ? 

Ch. Aye, greatly so, at least when he shall hear what thy 
name is. 

OEd. But who is he that will tell him this ? 

Ch. Long is the way ; but many sayings of the wayfarers 
are wont to circulate at random, which he hearing, be sure, 

1 ^vv olg, scil. 9eoZc, according to Hermann. Elmsley thought KdXvTrrs, 
used for Karaiaxwe. Tr. — So Aristoph. Plut. 114. oljiai yap, olfxai, avv 
Oec^ 8' ilpr]0£Tai, But Dindorf cleverly conjectures rdd' ovv {fSpoTwv 
being repeated from above) ^vveig oh, which is received by Wumier. 
With the whole reasoning we may compare Sextus Empir. adv. Phys. ix. 
p. 561, speaking of Diagoras: dSiKrjOdg vtto tivoq iiriopKr]aavTOQ Kal 
fir]dev 'ivtKa tovtov TraOovrog fieOrjpfioaaro sig to Xsyeiv firj dvai Qtov, 
where see Fabricius. Claudian in Ruf. i. 21, — "jam non ad culmina 
rerum injustos crevisse queror : tolluntur in altura, ut lapsu graviore 
ruant." See also Blomf. ^sch. kg. 369, sqq. B. 

2 Donaldson on An tig. 19, well remarks that irk^nniv and its com- 
pounds often mean to accompany a person, and thence to fetch them to a 
place. B. 



64 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 305 — 333 

will come ; for much, old man, does thy name spread amongst 
all, so that even if he be slumbering, at his leisure, hearing 
of you he will come hitherward in haste. 

CEd. But prosperous may he come both for his own country 
and for me : for what good man is not his own friend^ ? 

Ant. O Jove, what shall I say, whither turn my thoughts, 
my father ? 

(Ed. Nay what is it, my child Antigone ? 

Ant. I see a woman drawing nearer to us, mounted on an 
-3iltnean steed^, while on her head a Thessalian cap shielding 
her from the sun encircles her countenance. What shall I 
say ? Is it ? Is it not ? or do my senses wander ? I both 
affirm it, and deny, and know not what to say. Ah unhappy! 
It is none else ; with a bright glance she hails me by the eye 
as she draws near, and gives proof that this is plainly Ismene 
in person and none other. 

CEd. How saidst thou, my child? 

Ant. That I behold my child and my sister, but this 
moment thou mayest discover her by her voice. 

Ismene. Oh double salutation of a father and a sister to 
me most delightful, how, having hardly found you, can I in 
the next place for sorrow hardly look upon you ! 

(Et>. My child, art thou come ? 

IsM. Ah, father, distressful to look on ! 

(Ed. My child, and dost appear^ ? 

IsM. Aye, and not without trouble to me. 

(Ed. Embrace me, my daughter. 

IsM. I clasp you both together. 

(Ed. Ah ! seed of a common stock 

Ism. O sadly wretched family! 

(Ed. Meanest thou of her and me 

Ism. And of unfortunate me the third. 

(Ed. My child, but wherefore hast thou come ? 

Ism. From precaution on thy account, my sire. 

(Ed. From a longing to see me ? 

1 Oedipus says this in allusion both to himself and to Theseus. Simi- 
larly the Psalmist, " As long as thou doest good to thyself, men will 
speak well of thee." 

2 For the excellence of the Sicilian horses see Pindar's odes to Hiero 
of Syracuse, whom he calls founder of -^tna. 

2 I need hardly observe that Tre^Tjvag bears a present signification. B. 



333—360. CEDIPUS COLONEUS. 65 

Ism. Yes, and for a message besides, myself the bearer, 
with the only one of our domestics whom I had faithful to 
me. 

(Ed. But the young men thy brethren, where were they 
for the toil ? 

Ism. They are where they are. Dire are their present 
deeds. 

(Ed. O they in all things to the manners of Egypt likened 
in nature and in the breeding of life^. For there the males 
sit in-doors working at the loom, while their consorts always 
are procuring the means of support raised out of doors ; but 
they whose proper care it was to take this trouble off your 
hands, my daughters, are keeping house at home like maidens, 
while you in their room weary yourselves in relief of my 
miseries, wretch that I am. One of you, from the moment 
she left off the nui'ture of a child, and acquired strength of 
frame, perpetually, to her sad fortune, wandering with me, 
is the old man's guide, many a time straying famished and 
barefooted through the wild forest, and toiling, poor sufferer, 
through many a stoim and many a scorching sun's heat, she 
holds but secondary the comforts of her residence at home, 
if her father can be maintained. Rut thou, my child, hereto- 
fore hast come forth without the Thebans' privity, bringing 
thy father all the prophecies which were divulged touching 
this mortal mould, and stoodest up my trusty protectress 
when I was being ejected from my country ; and now again 
what tidings bringing to thy father comest thou, Ismene ? 
what moving cause has roused thee from home ? For thou 
comest not empty-handed at. least, this I well know, nor with- 
out conveying to me t-ome alarm. 

^ Diodorus Siculus (i. 27.) thinks that the female ascendancy prevalent 
in Egypt, arose from a wish to perpetuate the memory of Tsis' beneficent 
reign. The schoHast on Sophocles attributes the effeminacy of the 
Egyptian males to a policy of Sesostris, similarly to that recommended by 
Croesus to his conqueror. Whatever cause produced the petticoat govern- 
ment of that land, it has been sufficiently atoned for since, by the degraded 
condition of the women in Egypt for centuries past. One might conjec- 
ture chess to have been invented on the banks of the Nile during the pre- 
valence of the ancient manners, bat for the higher claims of the Lydians 
to inventions of the sort, who moreover, if Omphale may be taken as a 
specimen, were much on a par with their southern neighbours in female 
consequence. 

F 



66 CEDIPUS COLONEUS. 361—393. 

Ism. The hardships I underwent, my father, seeking for 
thy abode, where thou wert inhabiting, I will pass by and 
omit ; for I have no wish twice to be pained, both in the 
suffering them and again anew in the recital. But the mis- 
chiefs which now environ thy two luckless sons, to signify 
those to thee have I come. For ere while their strong desire 
was both to resign the throne to Creon, and not to pollute the 
city, when they reasoned over the calamity of their birth of 
old, how it had fallen on thy hapless house ; but now from 
some one of the gods, and from their v/icked spirit there has 
arisen between them trebly wretched an evil feud, to seize 
upon the sovereignty and kingly sway. And the younger 
and inferior in time of birth deprives the elder born Polynices^ 
of his throne, and has expelled him from his country. But 
he, as is the prevailing rumour amongst us, having retired in 
exile to the vale of Argos, is attaching to him both a new 
connexion and armed friends confederate ; as if Argos were 
forthwith either to surpass the Cadmeian plain in glory, or to 
exalt it to heaven This is no sort'' of words, my father, but 
fearful facts. Thy troubles, however, in what way the gods 
will commiserate, I cannot learn. 

(Ed. Why, hadst thou yet a hope that the gods would 
take any thought for me, that I might at length be saved ? 

Ism. Yes, that have I, from the present oracles at least, 
my father. 

(Ed. Of what natm-e these ? and what has been proj)hesied, 
my child ? 

Ism. That thou* wilt one day be an object of search to the 
men of that land both in death and life, for their o^^^l safety's 
sake. 

(Ed. But who could derive any benefit from such a one 
as I? 

IsM. 'Tis said that on thee depends their power. 

(Ed. WTiy then, when I no longer am, then it seems I am 
a made man. 

^ Euripides, on the contrary, makes Eteocles the elder, and is supported 
by other writers. 

2 " sort," contemptuously: *' ye shall be slain all the sort of you." 

^ " That thou." Hermann complains here of a want of judgment in 
the poet, in having excited his hearers to the expectation of some new 
oracle, when about to produce nothing more than they were already 
informed of by CEdipus. 



394—414. CEDIPUS COLONETTS. 67 

Ism. Yes, for now the gods stablish thee, before now they 
cast thee dowTi. 

QEd. Yet "tis a paltry favour to set up in age one who in 
youth has fallen. 

IsM. Be assured, however, that Creon, on account of these 
things, will shortly come, and in no long time. 

CEd. To do what, my daughter ? — tell me. 

Ism. To place thee near the Cadmeian land, that they may 
have thee in their power ; but thou mayest not enter the 
boundaries of the land. 

(Ed. "\Miat aid is there from me lying at their gates ? 

Ism. Thy tomb if deprived of just rites thi-eatens them 
with danger*. 

GEd. Even without a god, any one might leam this at least 
by his natm-al sense. 

Ism. On account of this, therefore, do they wish to place 
you near the land, not where you may be your own master. 

(Ed. Will they even enshroud me in the dust of Thebes ? 

Ism. Nay, the blood of kindred forbids you, O father. 

(Ed. Of me then sure they never shall obtain possession. 

Ism. This therefore shall at some time be a hea\'3^ woe to 
the sons of Cadmus. 

(Ed. By what circumstance arising, my child? 

Ism. By thy wrath*, when they shall stand at thy se- 
pulchre. 

(Ed. -But from whom hearing what you pronounce, do you 
relate it. my child ? 

Ism. From men sent to consult the gods, retm-ning from 
the Delphic shrine. 

(Ed. And has Phcebus declared these things to depend 
upon me ? 

^ Recte dvffrvxHJv, quod jicstis konoribus carens significare videtur. 
Tali sepulturae ne traderetur CEdipus, rautuebant Thebani ab oraculo 
moniti, nee tamen eum in pati'ia sepelire volebant. Hoc constat e v. 407. 
Elmsler. Tr. — On the misery of sepulture iu a foreign land, of. Jisch. 
Ch. 913. Virg. JEn. i. 94 sqq. B. 

^ An allusion is made to the invasion of Attica by the Thebans; and 
victory is of course promised to the Athenians. The whole of this play, 
indeed, abounds with instances of flattery, and similar presages of triumph. 
The poet knew his countrymen: — no people in the wo'-ld were ever more 
easily captivated with praise, when it was bestow^ed upon them univer- 
sally ; or more credulous of calumny, when it attaf hed to an iiulividual. 

r 2 



68 CEDIPUS COLONEUS. 415 — 444. 

Ism. So they say, who have come to the plain of Thebe^ 

(Ed. Which then of my sons heard this ? 

Ism. Both alike, indeed ; and well do they fully know it. 

CEd. And yet did these basest wretches, when they heard 
this, place the kingly power before the regret of me ? 

I«*M. I grieve to hear the intelligence ; but still I bear it. 

CEd. But may the gods never quench to them this fated 
strife^ ; and with me may the issue rest concerning this com- 
bat in which they now engage, and uplift the spear : so should 
neither he who now holds the sceptre and throne remain, 
nor he who has gone forth ever return again to the city. 
They, at least, neither retained nor defended me, their pa- 
rent, thus with loss of honours driven out of the country ; 
but expelled I was sent away by them, and was proclaimed 
forth an exile. You may say that the city then reasonably 
vouchsafed this gift to my wishes. No, in truth ; since on 
that very day, when my spirit boiled, and it was sweetest to 
me to die, and to be stoned with stones, no one appeared to 
gratify this desire ; but when, after a lapse of time, all my 
griefs were now mellowed, and I had learnt that my anger 
had rushed forth too severe an avenger of my former sins, 
then at length, after long stay, the state indeed drove me by 
force from the land : but they, offspring of a father, and able 
to aid a father, were unwilling to do it ; and, for want of a 
small R^ord^, I wandered abroad an exile and a beggar. But 

1 When the noun is in the singular, it must be understood as meaning 
tiie nymph Thebe, and is thus most poetically and correctly rendered. 

2 The curses which Gi^dipus imprecates on his sons throughout this 
play, are bitter and strong, and perhaps we might add unnatural. He is 
what Dr. Johnson would have called "a good hater:" — stern and im- 
placable, he seldom or never forgets his wrongs, and seems to feel, like 
Lear — 

" How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
To have a thankless child." 
The cause of this may perhaps be found in the ingratitude with which 
Sophocles was treated by his own children. We are told by Cicero, 
that this very play was written at the time that his sons presented a peti- 
tion to court to have him removed from the management of his own affairs 
on account of idiocy. The poet's whole defence consisted in reading this 
splendid production; and he was not only acquitted of the charge, but 
applauded to the skies. Happy the poet that lived amid such a people; 
and happy the people that could boast of such a poet ! 

' That is, for want of a small word spoken by his sons in his defence. 



445—473. CEDIPUS COLONEUS. ' 69 

from these two, who are virgins, as far as their nature permits 
them, I receive both the sustenance of life, and security on 
the earth, and the offices of kindred. Those, in preference 
to a father, choose to sway thrones and sceptres, and to lord 
it o'er the land : but neither at all shall they gain me as an 
ally, nor shall ever any enjoyment of the empire of Cadmus 
come to them. This t know, both hearing the oracles from 
this girl, and also reflecting upon the ancient predictions ; 
which Phoebus erst accomplished unto me in mine o\nti 
person^ Therefore let them both send Creon to search me 
out, and whosoever else is powerful in the state : for if you, 
oh strangers, are willing to defend me, along with these 
awful goddesses, who preside o'er your people, you will pro- 
cure a mighty saviour to this city, and troubles to my enemies. 

Ch. Thou art indeed worthy, CEdipus, of pity, both your- 
self and these thy daughters : but since you introduce j^our- 
self in these Avords as the savi.^ur of this land, I wish to 
recommend to you what is expedient. 

QLd. O dearest, interpret it to me, as now about to per- 
form everything. 

Ch. Institute now an expiation to those divinities to whom 
j'ou first came, and whose^ plain you have trodden. 

CEt>. Tn what modes? — O strangers, instruct me. 

Ch. First bring sacred libations from the ever flowing 
fount, touching them with holy hands. 

CEd. And when I have taken the pure stream? 

Ch. There are cups, work of a skilful artificer, the headf. 
and double handles of which do thou crown. 

In this interpretation I follow Brunck. Others take eTTog in the meanir^ 
it sometimes bears of Trpayfia, res, and translate it '^' on account of a 
small crime." Granting the sins of CEdipus to have been involuntary, it 
Vtfould scarcely however be decent to make him talk of patricide and incest 
as such trifling matters. 

^ Whatever be the difficulties of this difficult passage, the translator 
totally mistook ypvaev, when he rendered it " communicated." Wundsr 
objects to the common reading, and adopts the conjecture of Heath, re 
TciK If^ov. Hermann construes the words thus: rd rt dfioi 4»oTj3og el 
iliov TTork i'jv. ttoK. "id ego scio et hujus audiens oracula, quum reputo, 
et per me quas Phoebus olim antiquas dictiones effectum dedit," which^ in 
absence of something better, I have followed. Perhaps, however, t^oi* is 
repeated from the second line below, and has displaced the right word. B. 

2 But see Wander. B. 



70 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 474—485. 

CEd. With boughs or threads? or in what way? 

Ch. Wreathing them with the new-shorn wool of a young 
lamb. 

(Ed. Well; — ^but as to what remains, where is it fitting 
that I should accomplish it? 

Ch. To pour the libations, turning to the rising moni^ 

CEd. Shall I pour them from these urns you speak of? 

Ch. Three streams at least: but the last entire. 

CEd. With what, having filled this, shall I offer it r — Teach 
me also this. 

Ch. With water and with honey. Add no wine. 

CEd. And when the earth with its dark verdure shall have 
drunk these? 

Ch. Placing in it thrice nine boughs of olive, with both 
hands, utter over them these prayers. 

CEd. These I wish to hear, for they are of the greatest 
consequence. 

^ The practice of turning to the sun on solemn occasions, or even ad- 
dressing him as he rose, was a common superstition among the ancients. 
It is not exactly known what was the purport of this form ; but it pro- 
bably originated in the religious grandeur of the scene, and the emotions 
excited in the breast of the votary by the visible presence of the god. 
Clytemnestra, in the Electra, goes forth to tell her alarming dream to the 
rising sun :— ToiavTa rov Trapovrvg, r)vix' 'HXi<^ 

dsiKvvcn Tovvag, IkKvov l^7]yovnkvov. 
"Cratinus also mentions it as a religious ceremony : — 

*Ay£ Srj TTpbg sw Trputrov aTrdvTOJV "ktto), 
Kai XafifSdve x^P^'- ^X^'^'^''^ fxeyaXriv. 
And in the Necyomantia of Lucian we are told by Menippus, that pre- 
paratory to his descent to Hades, Mithrobarzanes the Chaldean conducted 
him at day-break to the banks of the Euphrates, irpbg dvarsWovra rbv 
i]Xiov, pfjaiv TLva fxaKpdv tTriXeywv. Tr. — So after a dream in Statius 
Theb. ix. 601, 

*' Ergo, ut inane nefas merso ter crive piavit, 

Verbaque sollicitas matrura solantia curas, 

Addidit, armatse ruit ad delubra Dianse, 

Rore sub Eoo ." 

So in Xenoph. Cyrop. vii. s. 3, Cyrus orders the camps to be pitched, 
TTpbg til) ^Xk-Kovaav. Achilles Tat. Isag. Arat. §. i. 'S.o^oKXrig tk tig 
'Arpsa TYjv ivpioiv dvacpkpii Xiyujv' Trdg TTpocTKvvel dk rbv arpktpovTa 
kvkXov i)Xlov. Hence the sun is frequently invoked as a witness, Apul. 
Metam. i. p. 3, and the apparition of the sun in a dream was a prosper- 
ous omen, Libanius, T. ii. Orat. xi. p. 344. Thus also Ptolemy Philo- 
pater after a victory turned the elephants to the sun, that they might 
offer their supposed adoration, ^lian, Hist. An. vii. 44. B. 



486—511. CEDIPUS COLONEUS. '71 

Ch. As we call them the benevolent goddesses, that they 
may thus with benevolent hearts receive their suppliant in 
safety, do you yourself implore ; or, if there is any other in 
your place, speaking inaudible words, nor making the voice 
heard afar. Then slow depart, without turning back. When 
you have done these things, I with confidence would stand 
by you; but otherwise, O stranger, I should fear concerning 
you. 

(Ed. my daughters, do you hear these stranger-dwellers 
in this land ? 

Ant. We have heard; and do you command what it is fit- 
ting to do. 

ffiD. By me the way may not be trodden ; for I am defi- 
cient in the want of power and in the want of sight, — two 
evils : but let one of you, going, perform these things ; for I 
am of opinion, that one soul, if it be present with kindly 
feeling, will sufiice in place of ten thousand in working this 
expiation. But with speed do ye something; only leave 
not me alone, for my body would not be able to crawl on 
unassisted, nor at least without a guide. 

Ism. I go to perform it ; but the place where I shall find 
the requisites, this I wish to learn. 

Ch. In that part of this grove, O stranger maid; and if 
you have need of anything, there is a dweller in the place 
who vvdll inform you. 

IsM. I will then, if you please, go for this pm-pose; but 
do thou, Antigone, here watch our father; for if any one 
toil for a parent, it is not fitting to bear remembrance of the 
toilM 

Ch. It is dreadful indeed, stranger, again to awaken a 
grief that has already long slumbered, yet still I long to 
enquire^. 

^ This wei-e a fine sentiment, if it came from any lips but those of the 
selfish and unamiable Ismene. She cannot do the most trifling piece of 
service to her father without making a fuss about it, and taking credit to 
herself for her exertions. 

2 If the Chorus had been possessed of a common share of delicacy or 
politeness, they would have restrained their longings, especially as they 
seem already to have been sufficiently acquainted with the revolting sub- 
ject. There was an awkward pause, however, occasioned by the departure 
of Ismene ; and they thought, perhaps, this conversation more dignified 
than a discoui'se on the state of the weather or any other vulgar topic. 



72 OEDIPUS COLONEUS. 512—536. 

(Ed. What is this? 

Ch. Concerning that sorrow which has arisen, wretched 
and extricable, in which you are situated. 

(Ed. Do not, kind friend^ by thine hospitality, lay open 
abhorred deeds. 

Ch. I wish, stranger, to hear correctly that report which 
laas spread far, and nowhere yet ceased. 

(Ed. Woe is me ! 

Ch. Acquiesce, I beseech thee. 

(Ed. Alas! Alas! 

Ch. Obey me, and I also [will obey you] as far as you 
require. 

(Ed. I have endured, strangers, the worst of ills: I 
have endured them unwillingly, heaven knows ; and of these, 
nought was of my own choice*. 

Ch. But to what are they to be ascribed? 

(Ed. The state bound me. all ignorant, in an evil union, 
in the accursed bane of wedlock. 

Ch. Didst thou with thy mother, as I hear, fill a bed that 
is horrible to name? 

(Ed. Oh me! these things, stranger, are death to hear; 
but these two from me — 

Ch. How sayest thou? 

(Ed. Daughters, yet twin curses* — 

Ch. O Jove! 

(Ed. Sprung from the throes of a common mother. 

Ch. And are they then thy daughters ? 

(Ed. And also their father's sisters, of one blood. 

Ch. Woe! 



1 TTSTTov is the elegant emendation of Bothe, approved by Dind. and 
Wunder. B. 

2 On the metrical and grammatical corruptions of these verses see 
Wunder. B. 

3 Vule^o TToiSeQ Svo S' arai. Id Heathius verti jussit, filii vero duo 
noxce. Quern Elmsleius miratur non vidisse filias TraX^aq, filios autem 
ara ab CEdipo nominari. Ego utrumque miror. Nihil enira istis inter- 
pretationibus fingi invenustius potest. Filiorum nulla hie mentio. H<s, 
inquit, ex me natce sunt filice quidem duce, sed duce noxee. Nempe et 
ipsae labem originis gerunt, et patri, qui genuit, opprobria sunt. Ita 
hsec etiam Brunckium intellexisse puto. Ylaice recte dedic Elmsleius, 
pariterque, quod nonnulli libri habent, ara. Hermann. 



53"— 558. CEDIPUS COLOXEUS. 73 

(Ed. "V\"oe indeed ! returns of ills unnumbered^ ! I have 
suffered things to be borne without oblivion. 

Ch. Thou hast done. 

(Ed. I have not done. 

Ch. How, pray? 

(Ed. I received a gift, which, would that I, wretched, had 
never merited to win from the state. 

Ch. Unhappy man; what then? — thou didst commit the 
murder. 

(Ed. "VMiat is this ? and what dost thou wish to learn ? 

Ch. Of a father? 

(Ed. Alas ! thou hast inflicted sickening grief on giief. 

Ch. Thou didst slay. 

(Ed. I slew, — but I have — 

Ch. TMiat? 

(Ed. Somewhat to justifv me. 

Ch. How? 

(Ed. I will tell; for I both slew and destroyed unwittingly, 
and innocent by law, and ignorant, I did the deed. 

Ch. But hither comes the king, the son of ^Egeus, The- 
seus, according to your request, for the things for which he 
was sent for^. 

Theseus^. Learning from many, both in former time, the 
bloody destruction of your eyes, have I recognised you, O son 
of Laius ; and now on my way hither hearing of you, I the 
more fidly know you ; for both your garb and youi* wretched 
head show us who you are : and j^itying you, unhappy (Edi- 
pus, I wish to ask you, what supplication having to me or to 

^ 'Btriarpopai Kaicwv, vortices malorum. Musgr. Scholiastes avva- 
6poi(rtig. Winsemius cumuli, Brunckius reciprocationes, Reisigius vicis- 
situdines. Tarn multas significationes habet iTiiarpo^r], quarum vix ulla 
ab hoc loco prorsus aliena est, ut optimam eligere difficillimum sit. 
Elmsley. Tr. — I follow Liddel. See Lex. Gr. s-maTpocpr]. B. 

2 This is according to Dindorf s emendation e^' aaraXi] for aTri(TTaKr\. 
He aptly compares Eurip. Bacch. 454: Icp' oTrep dq QtjjSag Trctpei. The 
sense is : he is here according to your request, in order to do that for 
which his presence was required. B. 

3 The character of Theseus is represented in a way that must have been 
highly agreeable to the descendants of the peojde he ruled. He is full 
of the most dignified and moral sentiments, and displays his generosity 
and pity in a very interesting manner. It might appear hypercritical to 
mention our only objection, that he is, perhaps, rattier stiff, and not suffi- 
ciently spirited and fiery for the boldest hero of chivalrous antiquity. 



74 CEDIPUS COLONEUS. 559—557 

the state, have you come, both you yourself, and she, the hap- 
less maiden by your side ? Inform me ; it would be a dread- 
ful task you must mention, from which I would shrink ; since 
I myself at least know how a stranger, like you, I was reared 
abroad, and how in man's estate I struggled with the greatest 
number of dangers in my own person, in the land of strangers. 
From no one therefore, who was a stranger, as you are now, 
would I turn away, so as not to assist in saving him^ ; for I 
have known that I am a man, and that to me there is no more 
share in to-morrow's day than to you. 

QEd. Theseus, yoiu- generous spirit has displayed itself in 
a few words, so as to require me to say little : for you have 
declared who I am, and from what father sprung, and from 
what land I came ; so that nothing more remains to me than 
to say what I seek, and the tale is sped. 

Th. This very thing now teach me, in order that I may 
fally learn it. 

(Ed. I come to bestow on you, as a gift, this my wretched 
body, not goodly to the sight; but the advantages to be de- 
rived from it are of greater consequence than a fiiir form^. 

Th. And what good do you, coming, claim to bring? 

CEb. In time you may learn it, not at all at present. 

Th. Why, in what time will your gift be made manifest? 

QEd. When I die, and you shall become my burier. 

Th. You ask the last offices of life ; but the things inter- 
mediate, you have either forgotten, or hold in no account. 

(Ed. For there these are concentrated to me'. 

Th. But in a trifle you ask this favour of me. 

(Ed. Look to it, however: this contest is not trifling; — no, 
bv no means. 



^ Virgil had this passage in view in his speech of Dido to ^neas : — 

" Me quoque per multos similis fortuna labores 

Jactatam, hac demum voluit consistere terra. 

Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco." 

" Kiiig Henry the Eighth, Act iv. sc. 2, 

" O father Abbot, 
An old man, broken with the storms of state, 
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye ; 
Give him a little earth for charity!" B. 
3 «< jn hoc enim uno, {i. e. si meam sepulturam curaveris,) reliqua ilia 
continentur." Musgrave. 



588—615. (EDirus coloneus. 75 

Th. Whether do you speak of the aiFairs of your children, 
or of me ? 

(Ed. They would compel me to repair thither. 

Th. But if they at least wish it, it is not creditable to you 
to tiy. 

(Ed. But they, when I myself wished [to remain] did not 
permit me. 

Th. O foolish man, anger in misfortune is not good. 

(Ed. When you have heard me, school me ; but at present 
bear with me. 

Th. Instruct me, for without judgment it does not befit 
me to speak, 

(Ed. I have suffered, Theseus, dreadful ills on ills. 

Th. Will you speak of the ancient calamity of your race ? 

(Ed. No, in truth; since every one of the Greeks at least 
talks of this. 

Th. For with what ill beyond the lot of man are you 
afflicted? 

(Ed. Thus it is with me ; I was driven from my land by 
my own seed ; and it is never permitted me, as being the 
slayer of a father, to return again. 

Th. How, in truth, should they send for you, so as to live 
apart^ ? 

(Ed. The words of heaven compel them. 

Th. Dreading what suifering from oracles? 

(Ed. That it is fated that they should fall by the stroke in 
this land'*. 

Th. And how should my interest and theirs become hostile? 

(Ed. O dearest son of iEgeus, to the gods alone old age 
belongs not, nor indeed ever to die ; but everything else does 
all-powerful time confound. The vigour of the earth indeed 
decays, and the vigour of the body decays ; faith dies, and 
falsehood springs up; and the same gale hath never at all 
blown, neither to friends among men, nor to state towards 
state. For to some indeed already, and to others in after 
time, the things that are sweet become bitter, and again 

* Miratur Theseus, quomodo revocent CEdipum Thebani ita, ut ille 
tauaen propter parricidium non ingrediatur fines eorum. Hermann. 

• GEdipus, more than once in this play, is not quite correct as to the 
place where he denounces the fall of his sons; but poets must be allowed 
some licence, and prophets some mystery. 



76 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 616— G47. 

friendly. And now if everything is prosperously tranquil to 
Thebes with you, infinite time will, in his course, beget an 
infinite number of days and nights, in which, from an insig- 
nificant cause, they will dissolve with the spear their present 
harmony of plighted right hands in that place where* my 
sleeping and ensepulchred corpse, long cold, shall drink their 
warm blood, if Jove be still Jove, and Phoebus son of Jove 
be true. But as it is not pleasant to utter words- that should 
be undisturbed^, permit me to go on in the way I have begun, 
only preserving your own faith, and you shall never say that 
you received (Edipus an unprofitable inhabitant of these places 
here, if the gods do not deceive me. 

Ch. O king, even before hath this man shown himself as 
about to consummate these, and such as these promises to 
this land. 

Th, Who, in truth, would reject the kindliness of a man 
like this, to whom, in the first place, there is ever with us 
the common altar of our friendship of the spear? And next 
coming a suppliant of the goddesses, he pays no small tribute 
to this land and to me : which things revering. I will never 
cast away the favour of this man ; but, on the contrary, will 
give him a seat in the land. But if it is agreeable to the 
stranger to remain here, I will appoint thee to watch him^ ; 
or if it is agreeable to go along with me, I grant you, O 
ffidipus, deciding on one of these, to avail yourself of it; for 
in that way I will coincide with you. 

GEd. Jove, mayest thou bestow thy blessings on such 
men as these ! 

Th. What then do yoa wish? to go to my palace? 

(Ed. [I would] if at least it were lawful to me : but this 
here is the spot — 

Th. In which you will do what? for I will not oppose 
you. 

GEd. In which I will conquer those who cast me out. 

Th. You would boast a great gift of your residence here. 



^ Heath, Elmsley, and Hermann, translate 'iva in eo loco uhi. Schffifer 
alone considers it as denoting time, and not place. 

2 TdKivrjT' iTzr} is taken by some in tlie way I have given it, as words 
of awful sanctity; by others, as meaning the fixed and unalterable oracles. 

2 Addressing this injunction to the Chorus. 



648—673. GEDIPUS COLONEUS. 77 

CEd. If, while I accomplish it, there remain to you at least 
those things you promise. 

Th. Be confident as to my part, at least I will never 
betray you. 

(Ed. I will not indeed pledge you, like a wicked man, by 
an oath. 

Th. You would gain nothing farther at least than by my 
word. 

CEd. How then will you act ? 

Th. Of what does the fear principally possess you ? 

(Ed. Men will come. 

Th. But to these it will be a care. 

(Ed. Take heed leaving me. 

Th. Do not teach me what it befits me to do. 

(Ed. There is need to one w^ho fears. 

Th. My heart does not fear. 

(Ed. You know not the threats. 

Th. I know that no man shall carry you hence against my 
will. Many threats menace many vain words in their rage, 
but when the mind returns to itself, the threats are vanished. 
And to them, even though there has been courage given to 
say terrible tilings about taking you away, I know that the 
sea^ hither will appear long, and not to be sailed. I there- 
fore bid you be confident, even without my care, if Phoebus 
conducted you : and still, though I be not present, I know 
that my name will protect you from suffering ill. 

Chorus. Thou hast come, O stranger, to the seats of this 
land'^, renowned for the steed ; to seats the fairest on earth, 
the chalky Colonus' ; where the vocal nightingale, chief 
abounding, tnlls her plaintive note in the green dells, tenant- 

^ i. e. the attempt will appear a difficult cne. Such proverbs and 
phrases are constantly used when great extent or difficulty are spoken, 
of. B. 

2 I have endeavoured to avoid the unpleasant pleonasm which deforms 
the opening of this beautiful chorus. I must, however, inform my readers, 
that it were perhaps more correctly rendered, ''Thou hast come, O 
stranger, to the best seats of the land of this earth." Elmsley alone of 
the editors of this play, has sanctioned the construction adopted above. 

^ This is often translated, byway of being gay, "the silvery Colonus." 
Besides that the epithet is rather unmeaning, it is very bad taste to take 
any liberties which violate the locality of the scene, and destroy the 
natural picture to the eye. 



78 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 674—713. 

ing the dark-liued ivy and the leafy grove of the god, un- 
trodden, teeming with fruits, impervious to the sun^, and 
unshaken by the winds of every storm ; where Bacchus the 
reveller ever roams attending his divine nurses'^. And ever 
day by day the narcissus, with its beauteous clusters, bursts 
into bloom by heaven's dew, the ancient coronet of the 
mighty goddesses, and the saffron with golden ray ; nor do 
the sleepless founts^ of Cephisus that wander through the 
fields fail, but ever each day it rushes o'er the plains with its 
limpid wave, fertilising the bosom of the earth ; nor have the 
choirs of the muses loathed this clime ; nor Venus, too, of 
the golden rein. And there is a tree, such as I hear not to 
have ever sprung in the land of Asia, nor in the mighty 
Doric island of Pelops, a tree unplanted by hand, of sponta- 
neous growth, terror of the hostile spear*, which flourishes 
chiefly in this region, the leaf of the pale gray olive that 
nourishes our young. This shall neither any one in youth^ 
nor in old age, marking for destruction, and having laid it 
wa&te with his hand, bring to nought ; for the eye that never 
closes of Morian* Jove regards it, and the blue-eyed Minerva. 
And I have other praise for this mother-city to tell, the 
noblest gift of the mighty divinity, the highest vaunt, that 
she is the great of chivalry, renowned for the steed and 
famous on the main ; for thou, O sovereign Neptune, son of 

* Lucan, Pliars. iii. 399, " Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab sevo, 
Obscururn cingens connexis aera ramis, Et gelidas alte summatis Solibus 
umbras." B. 

2 The nymphs of Nyssa received the infant Bacchus after the death of 
Semele, and nursed him amid the mountains. There are frequent allu- 
sions to this circumstance to be found in the poets. Thus Eurip. Cyclop. 4. 

""Q Bpo/xu 

Nu/i^ag opeiaq kic\i7ru}V (j»xov irpo^ovg. 

Hyginus, Astron. Poet. lib. ii. 17. — " Liberum patrem ^ut redderent 

nutiicibus nymphis." 

3 Sophocles here avails himself of the poetical licence, at least if we 
may give credit in preference to the accurate Strabo: 6 ^iv Kfjipifraog — 
y^nixdppiijSr]Q to ttXeov, Ospovg dt fieiovrai teXscjq. Tr. — But see 
Brunck. B. 

* Even the Lacedemonians, in their ravages of Attica, spared this con- 
secrated tree. 

» i. e. neither Xerxes nor Archidamus. See Herodot. viii 55, and Rei- 
gig's ffiote, B. 
6 See Reisig. B. 



714—748. CEDIPITS COLONEUS. 79 

Saturn, hast raised her to this glory, having first, in these 
fields, founded the bit to tame the horse ; and the well-rowed 
boat dashed forth by the hand, bounds marvellously through 
the brine, tracking on the hundred-footed^ daughters of 
Nereus. 

Ant. O plain, highest commended with praises, now it is 
fitting for you to make manifest these brilliant eulogies. 

(Ed. And w^hat new event is there, my child? 

Ant. Creon here, O father, approaches near us, not with- 
out attendants. 

OEd. Dearest old men, from you, now already may the 
goal of safety appear to me. 

Ch. Be confident, the safety shall be present ; for though 
I am an old man, the strength of this land hath not gro^vn 
old. 

Creon. Ye men, illustrious inhabitants of this soiP, I per- 
ceive from your eyes that you have felt some sudden fear at 
my approach, whom do je neither fear, nor assail with evil 
word ; for I come not as wishing to do anything, since I 
indeed am an old man, and I know that I come to a city 
which, if any other in Greece, is mighty in power. But I, of 
such an age, was sent to persuade this man to follow me to 
the Cadmean plain, not from the bidding of one, but charged 
by all the citizens, since it appertains by affinity to me, most 
of all the city, to mourn the sufierings of this man. But, O 
wretched (Edipus, listening to me, return home : all the 
people of Cadmus justly invite you, and of these I most of all, 
in as much as, if I were not by nature the basest of men, I 
grieve more over your misfortunes, seeing you unhappy, 
being indeed a stranger, and ever a wanderer, and with 
the aid of a single attendant, going in want of life's sub- 
sistence : whom I, wretched, never thought would have fallen 

' This does not imply that each of the daughters had a hundred feet, 
but that being fifty in number, they mustered, at the usual allowance of 
two a-piece, this quantity altogether. The conceit is silly, mean, and 
unworthy of the poet. Tr. — But see Wunder. B. 

2 Brunck has much improved the text here, by substituting tyyevelg for 
the old reading, tuysveiQ. The epithet is used with mtfth address by the 
insidious Creon; for there was no point on which the Athenians loved 
more to be complimented, than on being yr]yive'ig or avroxOoveg, the 
aboriginal inhabitants of the soil. Tr. — But surely tvytvtig comes to 
the same thing ! B. 



80 (EDIPXJS COLONEUS. 749—792. 

into so much of misery, as hapless she has fallen, always 
earing for you and your person with the food of beggar)^ of 
such an age, j'et not having experienced wedlock, but the 
prey of every one who meets her to ravish. Have I not 
then, O miserable man that I am, uttered a wretched reproach 
against you, and me, and our whole race ? But, for it is 
impossible to conceal the things that are exposed to the view, 
do you now, O GEdipus, by the gods of our country, obeying 
me, conceal them, having been willing to return to the city 
and homes of your fathers, bidding friendly farewell to this 
city, for she is worthy of it ; but your city, at home, may 
with right be more revered, being of old your nurse. 

CEd. Oh thou who darest eveiy thing, and who from every 
just speech extractest the wily device, why do you attempt 
these things, and why do you, a second time, wish to catch 
me in M^hat I should most grieve when caught ? For for- 
merly, when I was sickening with domestic evils, when it 
was agreeable to me to be exiled from the land, you were not 
willing to grant this favour to my wish : but when already I 
was satiated with anger, and it was sweet to me to spend my 
days in my home, theii you drove me out and cast me forth ; 
nor then was the tie of kindred by any means dear to you. 
And now again, when you see this city meeting me with 
benevolence, and all its people, you attempt to drag me away, 
proposing harsh measures in a soft way. And yet what 
pleasure is this to love people against their will ? as if any 
one to you, pressing to obtain, should grant nothing, nor 
wdsh to aid you, but to you, having your mind satisfied with 
what you required, should then give it when the favour 
procures no gratitude, would not you obtain this a vain 
pleasui*e ? Such things do you indeed also offer to me, in 
word good, but in fact evil : and to these also will I tell it, 
that I may prove you base. You come to take me away, not 
that you may conduct me home, but that you may place me 
by your borders, and that your city may be freed to you 
unhurt by evils from this land. These things are not granted 
to you : but those are, my avenging spirit ever dwelling 
there in the land ; and to my sons it is permitted to obtain at 
least so great a portion of the soil as only to die in. Do I 
not then conceive better of the affairs of Thebes than you ? 
Much better, sure, inasmuch as I hear them from more un- 



793—817. (EDIPUS COLONETTS. 81' 

erring sources, from Phoebus^, and from Jove himself, who is 
nis sire. But your falsified lips have come hither, having; 
much tongue- doughtiness ; but by your speech you will get 
more harm than safety. But, for I know that I shall not 
thus persuade you, go, and suffer us to live here ; for not 
even faring thus, shall we live unhappily, if we are con- 
tented. 

Cr. ^^Tiether do you deem, in your present words, that 1 
am unfortunate as regards your affairs, or rather you, as 
regards your own ? 

(Ed. It is most agi-eeable to me, indeed, if you are neither 
aole to persuade me, nor these beside me. 

Cr. Unhappy man, neither by time do you appear to haive 
given birth to wisdom, but nourish the bane of old age. 

(Ed. You are powerfid in tongue : but I never knew him 
a just man, who makes a good story out of everything. 

Cr. It is a different thing to speak much, and to speak 
things opportune. 

(Ed. As you forsooth utter these things both briefly and to 
the point. 

Cr. No, in truth, to whomsoever at least there is a/ mind 
like that in you. 

(Ed. Depart, for I will speak also for these, nor guard me, 
keeping a look out where it is fitting I should dwell^! 

Cr. I call these to witness, not you. But for the words 
you answer even to your friends — if ever I take you^ 

(Ed. And who shall seize me against the will of these my 
allies ? 

Cr. Assuredly, even exclusive of this, you shall grieve*. 

(Ed. With what sort of deed do you threaten this ? 

^ The ancient superstition was, that Phoebus only retailed the oracles 
which he received from his father Jove. Thus ^schylus in the Sup- 
plices : — 

'ErtWelv oTTUjg raxKyra' ravra ydp irarrjp 
Zevg iyKaOel Ao^ig.. — Tr. 
Earn. 19, Aioq Trpoptjrrjg d' Icrrl Ao^iag TrarpSg. Yirg. ^n. iii. 251. 
" Quae Phoebo pater omnipotens, milii Phoebus Apollo Praedixit." B. 

2 Such is the sense of Icpopfjcelv (for kcpopiiav is not the word, as Rost 
observes). So it is used of blockading a harbour in Xenoph. Hellen. i. 6, 
36 ; vi. 2, 7. B. 

3 See Hermann's note. B. 

* That is, " exclusive of my overpowering your defenders, and carrying 
you off." 

O 



■82 OEDIPUS COLONEUS. 818—840. 

Cr. Of your two daughters, having just seized one, I have 
sent her away, and the other I will quickly bear off. 

CEd. Woe is me ! 

Cr. You shall speedily have reason to cry woe the more 
for these things. 

(Ed. Have you my child ? 

Cr. Ay, and shall have this one too, in no long time. 

(Ed. Oh strangers! What will ye do? Will ye betray 
me? and will ye not drive away the impious man from this 
land? 

Ch. Away, stranger, out with speed, for neither now dost 
thou what is just, nor previously didst thou. 

Cr. It must be your office to conduct her away against 
her will, if she will not go willingly. 

Ant. Woe is me, unhappy woman ! Whither shall I fly ? 
What aid shall I gain from gods or men ? 

Ch . What doest thou, oh stranger ? 

Cr. I will not touch this man, but her, mine own^. 

<Ed. Oh, princes of the land ! 

Ch. Oh stranger ! thou doest not what is just. 

Cr. It is just. 

Ch. How just? 

Cr. I carry away mine own. 

Ant. Oh state^! 

Ch. W^hat doest thou, oh stranger ? Will you not let her 
go ? Quickly shall you come to the trial of arms. 

Cr. HoldoiF. 

Ch. Not from you at least, while bent on these things. 

Cr. For you war with the state, if you injure me in 
aught^. 

(Ed. Have I not foretold this ? 

Ch. Let go the maid immediately from your hands. 

Cr. Command not those things of which you are not 
master. 

Ch. I bid you let go. 

Cr. And I bid you proceed on your way. 

^ "My kinswoman," which she was by being the daughter of his suster 
Jocasta. This was but an indifferent plea, however^ for carrying tier off 
from her father. 

2 Assigned to CEdipus by Wunder. B. 

2 The dramatis ptreonse are arranged according to Dind. and Wund. B. 



841—872. (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 83 

Ch. Come hither, come, come, ye dwellers in the place. 
The city, my city, is violated by force. Hither come to me. 

Ant. I, wretched, am dragged away, strangers! 
strangers ! 

(Ed. Where, my child, are you? 

Ant. I go away by force. 

CEd. Stretch forth, my daughter, your hands. 

Ant. But I have not the power. 

Cr. Will you not drag her away? 

QEd. Oh wretched, wretched man that I am! 

Ck. No longer then on these two props shall you travel 
along ; but since you wish to prevail against your country 
and youi- friends, by whom I, appointed, do these things, even 
although king, prevail. For in time I know you will under- 
stand this much, that you neither now do what is goodly 
yourself towards yourself, nor formerly did, against the will 
of your friends, gratifying that anger which always works 
your ruin. 

Ch. Hold there, stranger. 

Cr. I forbid you to touch me. 

Ch. I will not, deprived at least of these two maidens, let 
you go. 

Cr. You will quickly then cause a greater pledge to be 
redeemed by the city; for I will not lay hold of these two 
alone. 

Ch. But to M^hat will you betake yourself? 

Cr. Seizing hold of this man I will carry him away. 

Ch. Your threat is dreadful. 

Cr. Believe me that it shall soon be now accomplished, if 
the ruler of this land prevent me not. 

(Eb. shameless voice! for wilt thou touch me? 

Cr. I command you to be silent. 

CEd. No ; for may not these goddesses yet make me silent 
of this curse, at least against thee, who, O basest Avretch, 
in addition to the loss of my former eyes, hast gone off, 
carrying away by force my only eye that was left ; therefore 
may the all- seeing sun of the gods give thee thyself, and thy 
race, some time or other, to grow old, like me, in a life such 
as this. 

Cr. Behold ye this, ye inhabitants of this land? 

CEd They see both thee and me ; and understand that, 

G 2 



84 CEDIPUS COLONEUS. 873—905. 

having suffered in deeds, I revenge myself on thee with 
words. 

Cr. I will not restrain my anger, but will carry him off by 
force, even though I am alone and slow through age. 

CEt>. O wretched me ! 

Ch. With how much audacity hast thou come, stranger, 
if you deem yau shall accomplish these things \ 

Cr. I deem I shall. 

Ch. Then I no lonp^er count this a state. 

Cr. In the cause of justice, even the small overcomes the 
great. 

CEd. Do ye hear what sort of things he utters? 

Ch. Things which at least he shall not accomplish. 

Cr. Jove may know these things, but not thou. 

Ch. But is not this insult? 

Cr. Yes, insult ; but it must be borne. 

Ch. Ho! all ye people! Ho! ye chiefs of the land! 
Come with speed; come, since they ah-eady are passing all 
bounds. 

Theseus. What can be this clamour? What is the 
matter ? From what possible fear have ye checked me in the 
sacrifice of oxen at the altar to the ocean-god, the president 
of this Colonus? Tell me, that I may know the whole, for the 
sake of which I have rushed hither more quickly than suited 
the ease of my feet. 

(Et>. O dearest friend ; for I knew thy voice, I have just 
suffered dreadful things at the hands of this man. 

Th. Of what kind are they ? And who did you the wrong ? 
Speak. 

(Ed. Creon here, whom you see, has carried off the sole 
pair of my daughters. 

Th. How sayest thou ? 

(Ed. Thou hast heard what things I have suffered. 

Th. Will not then some one of the servants, going as 
quickly as possible to these altars, compel all the people, both 
unmounted and mounted, to hasten from the sacrifice with 
loosened rein, where the double-opening paths of the way- 
farers nearest meet, that the virgins may not pass by, and I, 
vanquished by force, become a laughing-stock to this stranger 
fellow? Go, as I have commanded, with speed. And this 
Tuan, indeed, if I had come with the anger of which he is 



906—938- (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 85 

worthy, I should not have suffered to pass through my hands 
without a wound ; but now with those laws, which having, 
he entered the country\ with those, and no other, shall he 
be fitted. For you shall 'never depart from the land, till 
bringing those virgins here, you place them plain before me, 
since you have acted in a way neither worthy of me, nor 
of those from whom you are sprung, nor of thine own 
country; you who entering a state that practises justice, 
and ratifies nothing without the law, and then disregard- 
ing the authorities of this land, breaking in thus, carry off 
what you choose, and make them subject to you by force. 
And to me, you must have thought that there was a city void 
of men, or slavish, and that I was the same as nobody. And 
yet Thebes, at least, did not teach you to be base; for she 
is not wont to train up unjust men, nor would she praise you, 
if she heard of you violating my rights, and those of the 
gods, carrying away by force the suppliant bodies of wretched 
mortals. I would not certainly, entering your country, 
though I had the justest pretences in the world, I would not, 
without the consent of the sovereign of the land at least, 
whosoever he were, have either dragged or carried away; 
but I would have known how it were proper for a stranger 
to conduct himself among citizens. But you yourself dis- 
grace your own country, not worthy of reproach, and increas- 
ing years make you at once an old man and a dotard. I have 
said then both before, and I repeat it now, let some one, as 
quickly as possible, bring hither the maidens, unless you wish 
to become a foreign dweller in this land by force and against 
your wilP; and this sentence I pronounce to you equally with 
my mind and with my tongue. 

Ch. Do you see to what you have come, O stranger? so 
that by those from whom you are sprmig you appear just, but 
are detected in doing what is base. 

1 That is, " Quandoquidem sub amici specie venit, non pro hoste habe- 
bitur." Musgrave. 

2 MsToiKoQ was the name appropriated to designate a foreigner resident 
in Athens. There was a very large class of this description, as we may- 
see by the numbers of them that went out in various expeditions during 
the Peloponnesian war. It is in this body that Theseus threatens to in- 
corporate Creon; adding, for the sake of perspicuity rather than brevity, 
that it should not only be by force, but also against his will. Tr. — The 
wonder is, how Creon was silly enough to trust hiniself upon a freebooting 
adventure in a country not his own, with no efficient guard. B. 



86 OSDIPUS COLONEUS. 939—966. 

Cr. I, neither considering this city without citizens, O son 
of ^geus, nor without counsel, as you allege, have achieved 
this deed ; but conceiving that no such violent love of my 
kindi-ed would ever fall on these men, so that they would 
maintain them against my will. And I knew that they would 
not receive a parricide and wretch impure, nor one to whom 
there was found subsisting the unhallowed marriage of child 
[with mother]. Of this nature I knew with them the Areo- 
pagus' sage council coeval with the soiP, which does not per- 
mit such wandering beggars to dwell together in this city. 
On it relying I essayed this prey ; and I would not have done 
so had he not imprecated bitter curses on me myself, and on 
my race. In return for which, I, having suffered, thought fit 
to make this retaliation. For of anger there is no other old 
age except in death, but no grief affects the dead. You will 
therefore do whatsoever you please, since my unguarded state, 
even though I say what is just, makes me feeble. But to 
deeds, nevertheless, even being aged as I am, I will endeavour 
to make requital, 

(Ed. O shameless audacity ! whom do you think you insult 
m this, whether me, an old man, or yourself? who have 
uttered to me from your lips the slaughters, and marriages, 
and calamities, which I, wretched, have unwillingly endured. 
For to the gods is thus seemed fit perchance, bearing wrath 
for some offence against the race of old'' : since in myself at 
least you would not find any reproach of guilt, in return for 

^ HOoviov is translated by some, "subterraneous/' referring it to the 
manner in which the council sat, always in the dark, and deep below 
ground. The compliments which Creon pays it are just ; for though the 
nature of it be not so well known as might be wished, there is little doubt 
that it was one of the wisest and best institutions of antiquity. The proof 
of this is found in its rigid and impartial administration during the most 
corrupt times, and in its duration and reverence long after the more 
splendid glories of Athens had all departed. 

2 The Calvinism, or rather the fatalism of the Greeks, was very strong. 
They implicitly believed in a predestined chain of evils, commencing with 
the guilty deed of some individual, and continuing through all his future 
race, till vengeance was fully wreaked by its extermination. The traa:e- 
dians avail themselves very successfully of this superstition ; and the prin- 
ciple is in itself, indeed, finely calculated for heightening the dramatic 
effect. There is something fearful in the darkling way in which the de- 
voted victims of heaven's wrath are hurried on to penal destruction ; while 
there is an admirable opportunity afforded, by the innocence of the prin- 
cipal sufferer, to awaken and justify the sympathy of the audience. 



966—998. OiiDiPUS coloneus. 87 

which I perpetrated these sins against myself and mj' kindred. 
For tell me, if an annunciation of heaven had come to my 
father by oracles, that he should die by his children, how can 
you justly reproach me with this, who had not at all any 
generative increase from father or mother, but was then 
unborn ? And if again, when born to misery, as I was born, 
I came to strife with my father, and slew him, unweening of 
any thing I did, and against whom I did it ; how, at least, 
could you justly censure that which was sure an unwilling 
deed ? And are you not ashamed, wretch, to make me speak 
of the marriage of my mother, who was your sister ? a mar- 
riage such as I shall speedily declare ; for I then will not be 
silent, when thou forsooth hast proceeded to this unhallowed 
tale. For she bore me, she bore me, woe is me for my mise- 
ries ! she ignorant, me ignorant, and having given me birth 
she produced to me children, her own reproach. But one 
thing, at least, then I know, that you indeed willingly have in 
these M^ords reviled me and her, and that I unwillingly mar- 
ried her, and unwillingly mention this. Yet neither in this 
marriage shall I be talked of as wicked^, nor in the slaughter 
of my father, M-ith M^hich you always charge me, bitterly 
upbraiding. For answer me but one thing of what I ask you: 
If any one standing by here should immediately attempt to 
slay you, the upright man, whether would you inquire if your 
father were the assassin, or would you straightway avenge 
yourself on him? I think, indeed, an you love life, that you 
would take vengeance on the guilty, nor would consider 
what is just. Into such evils I also have entered, the gods 
impelling me ; to which declaration I deem that the ghost' of 

^ The justification which CEdipus offers of himself in this speech is a 
little inconsistent with the violent remorse which he elsewhere exhibits. 
He was incensed, however, by the remarks of Creon; and might feel like 
many other people, who talk freely of their own imperfections, and yet 
get very wroth if their neighbours take the same liberty. 

2 The writings of the tragedians, and indeed of all the ancient poets, 
teem with the notion of a re-appearance of the dead, and a revenge upon 
those who had done them ill during life (see ^sch. Choeph, 32, 136, 
315, 333, 479; Eum. 94, sqq. ; Eurip. Hec. 1, sqq.); and thence it was 
believed that the ghosts of the dead might be summoned into life, either 
to give advice, as Darius appears to Atossa in the Persae, and as in the 
resuscitation of Polyctitus mentioned by Phlegon, Trallianus, de mirab. 
q. 2, p. 21, ed. Meurs. or to denounce their murderer, as Clytemnestra 



88 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 999— 1029. 

my father, could it live, would not say the contrary. But you 
(for you are not just, but deem everything proper to mention, 
words that may, and words that may not be spoken) reproach 
me with such things in the presence of these men. And yet 
it seems honourable to you to flatter the name of Theseus and 
Athens, how nobly she is constituted; and while you thus 
praise many things, you forget this one, that if any land 
knows to worship the gods with honours, in that this land 
excels, from which you have endeavoured to steal away me, 
myself, an aged suppliant, and have gone off with my daugh- 
ters. In return for which, I now, invoking these goddesses, 
supplicate them and enjoin them in my prayers to come my 
allies, and aid, in order that you may well learn by what sort 
of men this city is guarded. 

Ch. The stranger, oh king, is a good man ; but his suffer- 
ings are utterly ruinous, and worthy of protection. 

Th. Enough of words, since the ravishers indeed hasten 
away, and we, the sufferers, stand still. 

Cr. What in truth do you command to a feeble man to do ? 

Th. To begin the way thither, and to go a guide to me, in 
order that, if you have our maidens in these places, you your- 
self may show them to me. But if those who have them in 
their power fly, there is no need to take the trouble ; for 
there are others who hasten, for whom having escaped out of 
this country, they'll never have to thank the gods. But 
lead on the way, and know that seizing, you are seized, and 
that fortune hath taken you, the hunter ; for possessions acqui- 
red by unjust trick are not preserved. And you shall have no 
other one to assist you in these things^ ; since I know, from 
the daring at present exhibited, that you have not come 

in the Eumenides, and as the wronged virgin who had appeared to Pau- 
sanias at Byzantium, and subsequently being evoked elg to -f^vxaTroinrHov 
by her murderer, foretold his end in a mysterious prophecy. Cf. Plutarch 
de sera num. vind. p. 40, ed. Wytt. So also the ghost of the departed 
is evoked to declare his murderer, in Apul. Metam. ii. p. 35 ; and a 
similar ceremony is fully described in Heliodor. Ethiop. vi. 14. The 
Trophonian veKvofiavreiov is described by Muximus Tyrius, xiv. §. 2, 
and the -.//uxtiywyoi by Plato de legg. x. p. 909f B. Steph. and Liban. 
T. i. p. 900, TibuU. i. 2, 23. Hence the reader may perceive how great 
was (the strength of this adjuration in a day when the belief that the 
deceased might confront his murderer even in this world, existed. B, 
^ But see Wunder. B. 



1030—1072. OEDIPUS COLONEUS. 89 

unattended or unharmed for such great insults : but there is 
something, on which relying, you have done these things 
which it behoves me to examine, nor to make this city weaker 
than a single man. Understand you aught of these words ? 
or do they appear to you to have been vainly spoken, both just 
now, and when you contrived this attempt. 

Cr. You will say nothing whilst here to be found fault with 
by me ; but at home we shall know what it is fitting to do. 

Th. Go now and threaten^. But do you, CEdipus, remaia 
here with us in quiet, assured that if I do not first die, I shall 
not cease until I put you in possession of your children. 

(Ed. May you be blest, O Theseus ! both for the sake of 
your generous spirit, and yxDur righteous provident care of us. 

Chorus. Would that I were where the gatherings of hos- 
tile men shall quickly mingle in the brazen din of battle, either 
by the Pythian shrines^ or the gleaming^ shores, where the 
awful goddesses foster for the mortal race* those hallowed 
rites of which the golden key hath even come upon the tongue 
of the ministering Eumolpidse^. There methinks that Theseus^ 
awaking the fight and the twin virgin sisters will quickly 
engage with prevailing shouts in these regions : or somewhere 
are they approaching, from ^a's pastures, the western ridge 
of the snowy rock, flying on steeds, or with racings that 
whirl along the car? He wdll be taken'''. Dreadful is the 
martial spirit of the natives, and dreadful the might of the 
sons of Theseus: for every bit is gleaming, and every one is 
hastening to mount the steeds with frontlet trappings, — they, 
who honour equestrian Minerva, and the earth- encircling king 

^ See Reisig. B. 

2 The shrine alluded to was dedicated to the Pythian Apolio at Mara- 
thon. 

3 Gleaming with the sacred torches made use of in the Eleusinian 
mysteries. 

■* There is something in the mystery and solemnity of this expression 
that would half induce one to believe in Warburton's theory of the wor- 
ship of the one and true God being preserved at Eleusis. 

* The scholiasts give us different accounts of the first Eumolpus ; but 
whoever he may have been, his descendants retained liis name and office 
of priesthood at Eleusis. 

^ But see Herm. and Wund. B. 

7 Hermann well remarks that ciXuxrtTai refers to Creou. The translator 
had connected it with dHvbQ...I'A^i]Q. B. 



90 CEDIPUS COLONEUS. 1073—1108. 

of ocean, Rhea's dear son. Do they fight? or are they on the 
point of engaging* ? How my mind presages something to me, 
that they shall quickly give up her who has endured dreadful 
things, and met with dreadful sufferings at the hands of her 
kindred ! Jove will accomplish, he will accomplish something 
this day. I am the prophet of a successful strife. Would 
that I a dove, borne fleet as the whirlwind, with the speed of 
strength, might from a cloud on high reach these contests, 
having lifted aloft mine eye'^! O Jove, all-ruler of gods, 
whose eye is over all, grant to the leaders of the people of 
this land in conquering strength to crown their ambush with 
the glorious prey ! and thy hallowed daughter, Pallas Minerva ; 
and the hunter Apollo, and his sister that pursues the swift- 
footed dappled fawns, — I implore to come a twofold aid to 
this land and to its citizens — Oh wandering sti-anger, you will 
not say to your watchman that he is a false prophet, for I see 
these virgins again hither near approaching. 

GEd. Where? where ? — What say you ? — How said you ? 

Ant. Oh father ! father ! who of the gods would grant 
you to behold this best of men, who has sent us hither to 
you ? 

GEd. Oh my child, are ye two present ? 

Ant. Yes ; for these hands of Theseus, and of his dearest 
attendants, have preserved us. 

CEd. Come hither, oh daughter ! to your father, and grant 
me to touch that body which I never hoped would have 
returned. 

Ant. You ask what you shall obtain ; for w^th longing is 
this favour [granted]^. 

(Ed. Where, in truth, where are ye ? 

Ant. Here we are, approaching together. 

CEd. Oh dearest branches ! 

Ant. To its author every thing is dear. 

1 MsXXovffi is wrongly given by Brunck ** morantur," which is not 
only false to the meaning, but totally does away with the energy of the 
passage. Tr. — Cf. Thucyd. i. fj fisWovreg TroXtfirjasiv, r} kv dvT(^ ri^ri 
vvTsg. B. 

2 The order is TrsXsiag (acp') aiOepiag vt<P' i(x)pr]aaaa Tovfibv o/nua 
Kvpaaifii TwvS' dvtjvbjv. See Wunder. B. 

3 (Tvv TToQio yap rj xcipig, i. e. gratiam petis quam ipsae ultro prsestare 
cupidissimae sumus. Musgrave. 



1109—1149. CEDIPUS COLONETJS. 91 

CEd. Oh props of a man — 

Ant. Of an unhappy man, though, the unhappy props — 

(Ed. I clasp what is dearest to me; nor should I any 
longer be utterly wretched in death, you two standing by 
me. Support, oh my child, both my sides ; implanting your- 
selves in your planter, and make me to cease from my former 
solitary and wretched wandering ; and tell me what has been 
done, as briefly as possible, since few words suffice to virgins 
of such an age. 

Ant. This is he here who saved us : to him it is fitting to 
listen, oh father ! and this business will be short both to you 
and me. 

CEd. O stranger, wonder not at my earnestness, if, my 
children having unexpectedly appeared I lengthen my words! 
for I know that this delight, given by you to me in them, 
has arisen from no other ; for you have preserved them, and 
no other mortal. And may the gods give to you, as I wish, 
both to yourself and this land ; since among you, at least, 
alone of men, have I found piety, and equity, and truth. And 
having experienced them, I repay them with these words; 
for I have what I have through you, and no other mortal. 
And stretch out, oh king, youi light hand to me, that I may 
touch it, and kiss, if it be lawful, your brow. And yet what 
do I say ? How should I, who have been miserable, wish to 
touch a man with whom there is no stain of evils an inmate ? 
I will not touch you, nor, therefore, will I permit you [to 
touch me]; for it is possible only to such mortals as have had 
experience of them, to join in supporting miseries like these. 
But do 3^ou, from that spot, receive my farewell, and for the 
future justly take care of me, as you have done to this day. 

Th. Neither if you have made the length of your words 
greater, being delighted with these childi-en, do I wonder : 
nor if, in preference to me you have first chosen their con- 
versation ; for no displeasure from these things possesses me : 
for I do not strive to make my life more glorious by words 
than by deeds. And I prove it : for of those things M^hich 
I swore, I have deceived you, old man, in nothing ; for I 
am present, bringing these virgins alive, uninjured by what 
was threatened against them. And how, indeed, this contest 
was won, — what need is there vainly to vamit that which you, 
at any rate, will learn yourself from these two, associating 



92 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 1150—1175. 

with them ? But apply your mind to the tale that has just 
met me, coming hither, since it is trifling indeed to tell, but 
worthy to excite wonder : and it is fitting that a man should 
neglect no matter. 

CEd. And what is it, son of ^geus } Insti-uct me, as I 
myself know nothing of those things of which you are in- 
formed. 

Tn. They say that some man, being no fellow-citizen in- 
deed of yours, but a kinsman, sits somehow a suppliant at our 
altar of Neptune, by which I chanced to be sacrificing when 
I rushed away. 

(Ed. Of what country ? Seeking what by this supplicatory 
posture ? 

Th. I know but one thing; for he requests, as they tell 
me, a short conversation with you, not full of trouble. 

(Ed. Of what kind r — for this sitting by the altar is of no 
slight import. 

Th. They say that he, <3oming, requests to come to con- 
versation with you, and to depart without injury from his 
journey hither. 

(Ed. Who then can he be who sits in this posture ? 

Th. See if at Argos there be any kinsman to you, who 
would seek to obtain this from you. 

(Ed. Oh, dearest friend, hold where you are, 

Th. What is the matter with you ? 

(Ed. Ask me not. 

Th. Of what sort of thing ? — speak. 

(Ed. I fully know, hearing these words^, who is the sup- 
pliant. 

Th. And who at all is he whom I should have cause to 
reprehend } 

(Ed. It is my hated son. Oh king ! whose words most pain- 
fully of all men would I endure to hear. 

Th. But why ? Is it not permitted you to hear and to 



1 ciKovuJv Tojvds, sc. XoyMV. Brumoy conceives 'iratdojv to be the 
word understood ; " Antigone et sa soeur devinent que c'est leur frere 
Polynice, et elles le disent a leur pere." Pray what is the occasion of 
giving the young ladies more penetration than their father ? The words 
of Theseus were so plain, that OEdipus, except he were deaf as well aa 
blind, must have very easily made out the matter. 



1176 — 1219. (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 93 

refrain from doing what you do not wish ? "WTiy is it dis- 
agreeable to you to listen ? 

CEd. This voice, oh king ! comes most hateful to a father; 
and do not urge me of necessity to grant this request. 

Th. But if his seat compel you, consider if the reverence 
of the divinity be not to be observed. 

Ant. Father, obey me, though young I give advice. Suf- 
fer this man^ to give gratification to his o^^^l mind, and to 
the god what he wishes ; and to us twain grant that our 
brother should come : for be confident, that whatever he shall 
say inexpedient to you, will not pervert you by force from 
your pm-pose. And what hurt is it to hear words r — works 
of the most glorious invention are made kno^vn by words. 
You begat him : so that neither, O father, though he did to 
you the worst of most impious %^Tongs, is it lawful for you at 
least to repay him with eviP : — ^but suffer him ; there are also 
to others bad children and fierce anger, but admonished by 
the spell -words of friends, they are softened in nature. But 
do you not now look back to those sufierings from father and 
mother which you endured ; though even if you look on them, 
I know you will perceive the end of evil anger, how it comes 
in addition evil : for you bear no slight impressions of this, 
being deprived of your sightless eyes. But yield to us ; for 
it is not good for those to press, who ask for just things, nor 
for you yourself to receive benefits, and ha^'ing received, not 
to know how to repay them. 

(Ed. ]My child, ye gain from me by j-our speeches a re- 
luctant pleasure. Let it be then as is agreeable to you : only, 
friend, if he shall come hither, let no one ever have control 
over me. 

Th. Once, old man, not twice, do I seek to hear such 
requests. I wish not to boast ; but know that you are safe, 
if any one of the gods shall also preserve me. 

Chorus. Whoever seeks to live for a lengthened term, 
neglecting the mean, will be proved in my mind to cherish 
folly ; since oft has length of days brought us nearer to pain, 
and you can no where see aught of joy when any one may 

* Theseus, not Polynices. 

2 The character of Antigone always appears in the most amiable light. 
Her sentiments breathe at once of the purest sisterly love, and of a spirit 
of forgiveness almost worthy of a Christian. 



94 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 1220— 1251> 

meet with more than his wishes require ; but death is the 
aid (of our troubles) that ends with the graved when that 
fate hath appeared without nuptial hymn, without lyre, or 
dance, and death to close the scene. Not to have been born 
at all is superior to every view of the question ; and this when 
one may have seen the light, to return thence whence he 
came as quickly as possible, is far the next best. For when 
youth comes bringing light follies, who wanders without the 
pale of many sorrows'.'* — what suffering is not there ? — ^murders, 
factions, strife, battle, and envy : and loathsome old age hath 
gained the last scene, — impotent, unsociable, friendless old 
age, where all ills, worst of ills, dwell together. In which 
state this wretched man, not I alone, as some promontory 
exposed to the north, is beaten on all sides by the dashings 
of the billows in the winter storm ; — thus also dreadful cala- 
mities, bursting like waves over his head, ever present beat 
on him, — some indeed from the setting of the sun, and some 
from his rise, and some from his mid-day beam, and some 
from the cloud-dimmed stars of night*. 

Ant. And in truth, hitherward to us, as appears, the 
stranger, father ! unaccompanied, at least, by men, makes 
his way, copiously shedding tears from his eyes*. 

1 I have rendered this difficult passage according to Dindorf s text. 
ButWunder reads ovhlin Kopog, and joins MoTpa laoT' "A'idoc. None of 
the present explanations seem satisfactory, tiriKovpoQ is perhaps required 
by what follows, being used in the sense of " levamen." Cf. Silius xi. 185, 
** nuUo vos invida tanto Armavit Natura bono, quam janua mortis (Quod 
patet) e vita non sequa, exire potestas." B. 

2 Tit," t^w Tov TroXvjxoxOoQ dvai t7r\avf]9r]. Scholiast. 

^ The poet, who through the whole of this chorus has been comfortably 
obscure, works himself up by the end of it into absolute mysticism. It 
seems like an imitation of the vi'orst style of -^schylus, and bears very 
few marks of the correctness and good taste for which Sophocles is usually 
distinguished. Tr. — Some commentators, with the scholiast, understand 
wxtdv dwo 'FiTTciv as referring to the Rhipsean mountains, thereby point- 
ing to the northern parts Qf the heavens. This is somewhat favoured by 
the preceding words. But I think it is more natural to take the whole 
passage as referring to the troubles that befall men at different times of 
life. Cf. vs. 1229-37. ^sch. Choeph. 62. roXg fiiv tv (paei, Td 5' 
iv fieTaixi^i<{> ok6tov....tovq S' aizpavrog e'%£i vv^. The phrase vvx'imv 
appears to denote the weak, uncertain light of the stars struggling through 
the clouds on a dark night. Cf. Boeth. de Consol. I. metr. vii. i. 
**Nubibus atris Condita nullum Fundere possunt Sidera lumen." B. 

■* ciaTaKTi, not in drops, but in showers. 



1252—1282. (EDIPTJS COLONECS. 95 

(Ed. Who is he ? 

Ant. Even whom we formerly conceived in mind;— 
Polynices is here present. 

PoLYNicES. Woe is me ! what shall I do ? Whether, 
sisters, shall I first weep over my own misfortunes, or those 
that I behold of this my aged father ? whom, on a foreign 
soil, I have found, with you two here, cast out, clothed in such 
a garment, whose loathsome aged filth hath fixed itself on the 
old man, wasting away his body, and on his sightless head 
his uncombed hair streams to the wind; and congenial to 
these, it appears, he has the nourishment for his miserable 
stomach. All which things I, utterly abandoned wretch! 
too late learn: and I call you to witness that I have come, 
the worst of men, in providing for your support^ : seek not 
to know my state from others. But since over every work is 
Mercy joint assessor to Jove on his throne, let her, father ! 
also take her stand by thee ; for of transgressions there is 
remedy, though no longer recalP. Why are you silent ? — 
speak something, father ! do not turn away from me. Will 
you not answer any thing to me, but send me away, dis- 
honouring me, without a word, nor telling at what you are 
angry ? daughters of this man, and sisters mine, but do 
}X)u at least attempt to awaken our father's words, difficult to 
gain, and devoid of affability, that he may not thus, at any 
rate, send me away dishonoured, at least as suppliant of the 
god, replying riot a single word. 

Ant. Say, oh unhappy man ! yourself, in want of what you 
are present ; for oft have words, either causing some delight 

1 Some give the meaning of this passage thus: " I call you to witness 
that, though I am the worst of men, I have now come to provide for your 
support." This is plausible enough; but what immediately follows, 
TovTo firj l^ ciXXwv TrvQy, makes it much more hke an acknowledo-ment 
of guilt. 

2 This is another disputed point. The scholiast, whom I follow, ex- 
plains 7rpo(r9!)opa as meaning £7raj/a/\?jv//<c: Brunck, " exprobratio:" and 
Musgrave supplies rwv ayibv after TCQoacpopd. Remedia quidem adsunt, 
sed ea adniovere non licet. Tr. — I think that Trpoa^opa cannot bear the 
sense assigned to it by the translator, especially as the scholiast's gloss 
belongs to aKr}. Hermann well remarks that Polynices says: " priora 
peccata se velle corrigere, non augere aliis." But to gain this meaning, 
a strong adversative particle seems to be required. Perhaps we should 
read srpoo-^opd yap ovk in, or Trpoafopd d' ovk iari Sf]. B. 



96 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 1283—1314. 

or displeasure, or moving somehow to pity, give some speech 
to the silent^ 

Pol. But I will speak out, [for well you direct me,] first 
making the god himself my ally, from whose altar the king 
of this land raised me up to come hither, granting both to 
speak and to hear with safe departure ; and these boons, O 
strangers, I should wish to gain from you, and from these my 
sisters, and from my father. But for what purpose I have 
come, I now wish, O father, to tell you. I have been driven 
forth an exile from my native soil because I claimed, being 
sprung from elder birth, to sit on thy imperial throne. 
Wherefore, Eteocles, being by birth the younger, drove me 
out of the land; neither having overcome me by question of 
right, nor having come the trial of hand or deed, but having 
persuaded the city : of which misfortunes I account your im- 
precated vengeance to have been the principal cause ; and 
then from prophets also I hear it declared in this way. For 
M'hen I came to Doric Argos, having gained Adrastus as my 
father-in-law, I procured sworn associates to myself, as many 
as are styled the chiefs of the Apian* land and are honoured 
in war, in order that, having assembled with these an expe- 
dition, led by seven spears, against Thebes, I might either 
rightfully falP, or drive forth from the land those who 
Avrought these deeds-. So far. so good. Why in truth do I 
now chance to have eome ? To thee, O father, bringing sup- 
pliant prayers myself both for myself, and for my allies, who 
now with seven squadrons, and with seven spears, encircle 
all the plain of Thebe ; such as is Amphiaraus, brandishing 
his spear, holding the first place in war, and the first in the 

^ I cannot help thinking that rivd is a botch to the verse, and that we 
should read Trapkax^ (jjiovqv toIq d<^(t)vr]Toig Trapog, "to those before 
silent." B. 

2 Apia was the old name of the Peloponnesus. The origin of it is 
given, though with no great probability, in the Supplices of ^schylus, 268. 

^ Musgrave takes TravSiKojg along with dyeipag; and Benedict, with 
tKJoaXoifii. There is no great occasion for forcing it so violently out of 
its natural place. Poiynices means to say, that if he fell in attempting to 
regain his own, he would fall at least in a rightful cause. Tr. — Wunder 
would interpret Trav^tKwe, " radicitus funditus," after Doederlin, which 
seems the idea of a grammarian, rather than a poet. I prefer keeping 
the chivalric sense of TjavSiKwg, although I will spare my reader certain 
quotations from " King Arthur" and the ''Fairy Queen." B. 



1315—1357. (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 97 

paths of birds : and the second is an -^tolian, Tydeus, 
son of ^neus : and the third is Eteoeles, by birth an A.rgive: 
a fourth, Hippomedon, his father Talaus hath sent ; the fifth, 
Capaneus, boasts that he will quickly in flames lay level with 
the ground the city of Thebe : and sixth, the Arcadian Par- 
thenopaeus rushes on, bearing the name of his mother, in for- 
mer time long a virgin, sprung from her throes, the doughty 
son of Atalanta : and I, thy son ; if not thy son, but sprung 
from evil doom, yet thine at least by name, do lead the fearless 
host of Argos against Thebes : who all in supplication implore 
thee, father, by these thy children, and by thy Hfe, to 
mitigate thy heavy wi*ath against me proceeding to the pun- 
ishment of my brother, who drove me out, and robbed me 
of my country. For if there be any faith in oracles, with 
whomsoever you may join, to these the god declared that the 
victory would be. Now by our native fountains and our 
kindred gods^, I implore you to obey me, and to yield from 
your purpose, since we are poor and strangers, and you a 
stranger; and you and I live paying court to others, having 
gained by lot the same fortune. But he at home a king, un- 
happy me ! laughing in common at us, pampers himself up : 
whom, if you accord with my inclinations, I will overthrow 
with slight trouble and time ; so that, bringing you, I shall 
place you in your palace, and place myself there, driving out 
him by force. And this, if you assent to my wish, it is al- 
lowed me to boast : but without you, I am not even able to 
be saved. 

Ch. Having said, oh CEdipus! to this man, for the sake of 
him that sent him, what is expedient, again send him back. 

(Ed. But if indeed, ye men, Theseus, the ruler of the 
people of this land, had not chanced to send him hither to 
me, claiming that he should hear my words, he had never at 
any time heard my voice ! but now he shall depart gifted with 
that honour, and having heard too from me such things as 
will never cheer his life. You indeed, oh basest of men; 
who having the sceptre and the throne which your brother 
now sways in Thebes, yourself drove away this your onmi 
father, and forced him to be an exile from the city, and to 

^ Nothing can be more beautiful and impressive than this appeal : even 
the old muddled scholiast is affected by it : iraQriTiKov tan to Trpbg xa- 
Tp(i'>u)v Kprjvuiv bpKovv, o}Q ei icpij TrpoQ Toiv iiiOpex^dvTijtJV gs v^cltwv, 

H 



98 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 1358—1391. 

wear these garments, which you now beholding, weep, when 
you chance to have come into the same trouble of sorrows 
with me. But these things are not to be wept by me, but to 
be endured whilst I live, bearing remembrance of you, a 
murderer*. For you have made me fellow with this toil, you 
have driven me out, and by your work I wandering beg from 
others my daily subsistence. And if I had not begotten 
these as nurses to myself, these daughters, assuredly I had 
been no more, for thy part: but now these preserve me, these 
my nurses, these men, not women, to assist in. toil. Ye have 
been born from some other, and not from me. Wherefore 
the divinity beholds you, not at all just now, as if shortly^, 
indeed these squadrons are moved against the city of Thebe. 
For it cannot be that thou shouldst overthrow that city, but 
first thou shalt fall defiled with blood, and your brother 
equally. Such curses formerly did I emit against you', and 
now I again invoke them to come allies to me, in order that 
ye may think it fit to reverence parents, and may not treat 
them with dishonour, if such ye twain have sprung from a blind 
father: for these virgins did not thus. Wherefore the curses 
shall possess your seat and your throne, if Justice, famed of 
old, jointly preside with Jove over his ancient laws. But do 
you go to ruin, both spurned and disowned by me, basest of 
the base, taking with you these curses, v/hich on you I in- 
voke, never to gain possession of your native land by the 
spear, and never to return to hollow Argos, but to die by a 
brother's hand, to slay him by whom you were driven out. 
Such curses I imprecate, and I invoke the murky parent 
gloom of Tartarus to receive you in its mansions*: and I 

^ Polynices ab CEdipo videtur consulto ^ovevg appellari, ut sequali se 
calamitate a filiis suis adfici indicaret, qua ipse ignarus La'ium patrem 
suum e vita sustulerit. Benedict. 

2 That is, " Fortune will then frown upon you." 

2 The scholiast gives rather a quizzical account of these former curses 
of CEdipus. His sons had been in the practice, when they sacrificed, of 
sending him a shoulder, but on one occasion they disappointed the old 
gentleman of his favourite part, and only sent him a thigh. He was so 
enraged at them for thdr joint neglect, that he uttered those curses which 
entailed ruin and death on their heads. 

^ There is nothing, even in the curses of I^ear, more strong and horrible 
than this. The expressions on the occasion of the thigh are not handed 
down to us ; but it is to be hoped that they were not qmte so bitter a." 
this second and improved edition. 



1392—1428. (EDIPUS COLONEIJS. 99 

invoke these goddesses, and I invoke Mars, who has inspired 
you with this dire hatred. And having heard these words, 
depart, and going, announce both to all the people of Cad- 
mus, and at the same time to your faithful allies, that CEdipus 
has awarded such gifts to his children. 

Ch. Polynices, I do not congratulate you on the way you 
have passed; and now go back again with all speed. 

Pol. Woe is me for my journey, and for my ill success ! 
and woe is me for my associates ! For what an issue of our 
expedition then have we set out from Argos ? Oh, unhappy 
me ! such an one as it is neither allowed me to tell to any of 
my associates, nor to turn them back, but remaining silent, 
to encounter this fate. Oh sisters! sprung from the same 
blood with me, but ye, since ye hear our father imprecating 
these harsh curses, do not ye at least by the gods, if the 
curses of this my father be accomplished, and ye have any 
return to your home, do not ye at least, by the gods, treat 
me with dishonour, but lay me in the tomb, and with funeral 
rites. And praise, which you now carry off from this man 
for the things in which ye labour, you will gain another no 
less from your ministry to me. 

Ant. Polynices, I beseech you in something to obey me. 

Pol. In what sort of thing, dearest Antigone! — Say. 

An T. Turn back, as quickly as possible at least, your ar- 
mament to Argos, and do not destroy both yourself and the city. 

Pol. But it is not possible. For how could I again lead 
the same army, having once trembled* ? 

Ant. And what need is there, O youth, again to give way 
to your anger ? What gain results to you, having overthrown 
your native country? 

Pol. It is base to fly, and that I, the elder, should thus be 
laughed at by my brother. 

Ant. Do you see then how you directly bear to fulfilment 
his oracles, who predicts to you death by each other's hands? 

Pol. Yes, he wills it so'^, but we must not yield. 

Ant. Woe is me, unhappy woman ! But who will dare to 
follow you, hearing the prophecies of this man, such as he 
has delivered? 

1 SeeWunder. B. 

2 So Hermann, more forcibly than according to the ordinary interpre- 
tation : "he predicts it.'' The predictions weie ah-eady known. B. 

II 2 



100 (EBIPUS COLONEUS. 1429—1454. 

Pol. We will not announce what is bad, since it is the 
part of a good general to speak of success, not failure. 

Ant. Thus then, youth, are these things decreed by you. 

Pol. Yes, and do not indeed restrain me. But to me this 
expedition will be a care, though consigned to misfortune and 
ruin by my father and his Furies. And to you may Jove 
grant a propitious way, if ye perform these things to me in 
death ; since to me in life, at least, you will not again have 
it in your power. And now let me go, and fare ye well, for 
ye never will more behold me alive^. 

Ant. O unhappy me ! 

Pol. Do not mourn for me. 

Ant. And who, O brother! would not groan over you, 
rushing to evident destruction ? 

Pol. If it be fated I shall die. 

Ant. Do not you, sure you will not, but be persuaded by 
me''. 

Pol. Do not persuade me what is not fitting. 

Ant. Unhappy then am I, if I be deprived of you. 

Pol. These things rest with the divinity, to take place in 
this way, or that way. But I pray the gods that ye may 
never meet with evils, for ye are in all respects unworthy to 
be unfortunate. 

Ch. These new evils have come anew upon me, new evils 
of heavy fate from the sightless stranger, unless fate be coming 
somewhere^ — for I cannot say that any decree of the gods is 
in vain. Time regards, ever regards these things*, sometimes 

^ It would appear from this expression, that Antigone, in the agony of 
feisterly love, had thrown her arms around her ill-fated brother, and en- 
deavoured thus to restrain him, when her tears and her prayers were of no 
avail. The whole scene is exquisitely tender and beautiful, and presents a 
fine contrast to the unnatural sentiments and stem curses which CEdipus 
had just before uttered. 

2 Such is the only way in which the force of the ye, in this place, can 
properly be given. 

^ I have translated this phrase d ti fioTpa firj Kiyx^'^'^'- as an abrupta 
oratio. The Chorus, alarmed by the lowering sky, and inspired with 
some uncertain presage, speak of impending evil, yet scarce knowing 
whether that fate awaits them or their hapless guest. I think that an 
accusative is omitted out of a dread of mentioning the death of CEdipus 
clearly. This view of the presage is confirmed by the following verses. 
See, however, Hermann, who, with the scholiast, plainly refers it to fate 
overtaking CEdipus. B. 

* There is much difl&culty la these lines, especially in tTrel, which can 



1455—1485. (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 101 

adverse, yet again uplifting them each day. The firmament 
hath thundered, Jove ! 

(Ed. O children! children! how, if thsre be here any 
dweller in the place, would he send hither the all-excellent 
Theseus* ? 

Ant. But vrhat, father, is the plea, upon which you 
summon him ? 

CEd. This winged thunder of Jove will straightway bear 
me to the shades ; but send with all speed. 

Ch. Behold a mighty unspeakable peal, sent by Jove, is 
crashing along. Terror hath crept along the summits of the 
hairs of my head. I crouch in spirit : for the lightning of 
heaven is again blazing. What issue indeed will it produce ? 
But I fear ; for never does it rush from heaven vainly or 
without consequences. O mighty firmament ! O Jove ! 

GEd. Oh my children, the predicted end of life hath come 
to me, and there is no longer escape from it. 

Ant. How do you know it? by what do you conjecture it^.'' 

(Ed. I know it well ; but let some one, going as quickly 
as possible, send hither to me the king of the land. 

Ch. Oh! oh! Behold how terribly again the piercing' 
roar rolls around us. Be merciful, oh divinity, be merciful, 
if you chance to bear some dark doom to my mother earth : 
and may I meet with a man propitious ; nor having seen an 
accursed one*, may 1 anyhow reap a bootless favour. King 
Jove, to thee I speak. 

scarcely stand for ojg, as Wunder supposes. I think that it must be cor- 
rupt, and that some word equivalent to icO' ore or ottov has dropt out in 
its stead. As it is, I have chiefly followed Hermann. B. 

^ OEdipus immediately perceives that his hour is come. Early in the 
play he mentions that he expected such a sign: — 

'Eyjfieia d' ri'iiiv tHjvS' s^ol Traprjyyva, 
"H a8i(Tfibv, i] j3povTr}v tiv rj Aloq (reXag. 
This circumstance is in itself productive of a sublime and almost appalling 
sensation ; and the play proceeds from this point to the catastrophe in a 
strain of unequalled grandeur and effect. 

2 Pindar, Nem. xi. 43, avjxjiaXtiv Xiav sifiapeg. Nicolaus Damasc. 
M.S. fol. 3, (ru/x/3a\Xfi tijv tov ovtipov (pTjfirjv. B. 

^ AiaTrpixTiog, "penetrans;" by which may either be expressed the re- 
verberation of sound through the sky; or the Chorus may mean that the 
Sunder thrills, if we may so say, through them. 

* Since a\a(jTog is akin to dXdcFrcjp, and we meet with Trarpbg t/x^vTov 
AXa<TTov alua in vs. 1671, it is strange that the translator should have 



102 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 1486—1517. 

(Ed. Is the man near ? Will lie yet, my children, find me 
alive, and possessed of my senses ? 

Ant. And what secret trust would you wish to commit to 
his breast ? 

(Ed. In return for the favours I have received, to give 
him the consummation of the favour I promised. 

Ch. Ho, ho, my son, come, come, if at the extremity of 
the beach you are consecrating the sacrificial altar to Neptune, 
god of the sea, come : for the stranger deems it right to 
return to you, and to the city, and to his friends, the just 
favours he has received. Hasten, rush, oh king ! 

Th. What common uproar again resounds from you, 
clearly proceeding from yourselves, and distinctly from the 
stranger ? Has some bolt of Jove, or shower of hail, burst 
upon you ? for one may conjecture everything of this kind, 
when the god raises the storm. 

(Ed. Oh king ! you have appeared to me wishing, and 
some god gave you the happy fortune of this coming. 

Th. But what new thing, O son of Laius, has again arisen ? 

(Ed. This is the crisis of life to meS and I wish to die 
without deceiving you and this city in what I promised. 

Th. On what certain sign of death do you depend ? 

(Ed. The gods, themselves their heralds, announce it to 
me, being false to none of the previously-concerted signs. 

Th. How say est thou, old man, that these things are 
unfolded ? 

(Ed. The frequent continuous thunderings, and the many 
bolts flashing from the hand imdneible. 

Th. You persuade me, for I see you predicting many 
things, and these not of false report ; and teU me what it is 
fitting to do. 

rendered it "not to be forgotten;" for the sentiment, by which those 
who held communion with the impious, were supposed to suffer the 
penalty of their crimes, was very common. Cf. Hesiod, Ipy. 238, 
TToWaKi K<xi ^vjjiTraffa TroXig kukov dvdpbg cL.irrjvpa, "0(ttiq aXiTpaivei. 
Kai araadaXa nrjxavdarai. ToXmv S' ovpav69ev fisy' I'Trrjyaye Trrjua 
Kpovi(i)v Aifibv ofiov Kal Xoi^ov, cnrocpQivvQovffi Ss Xaoi. Qvdk yvvaiKeg 
TiKTovcnv, [xivv9ov<n Sk oIkol. Babrias, Fab. 117, evbg yap dae(3ovg 
ifiPs^rjKOTog TrXoUp, IloXXovg avv dvTt^ firjSev aiTiovg Qvi\aKHv, See 
Comm. on Hor. Od. iii. 2. 

^ Or, " My life is verging to its close." The meaning of poiri) Is 
taken from the turn of the balance. 



1518—1556. (EDIPT7S COLONETJS. 103 

(Ed. I will teach you, son of JEgeus, things which 
uninjured by age, shall be stored up to this city. I myself, 
untouched by a guide, will straightw*ay point out the spot 
where it behoves me to die. This never tell to any mortal, 
neither where it is concealed, nor in what place it lies, since 
it will over provide you a defence against your neighbours, 
superior to many shields, and to foreign spears. But the 
things that are sacred and that are not uttered in words, you 
yourself shall learn when you come there alone ; since neither 
would I declare them to any one of these citizens, nor to my 
children, though I love them. But do j'ou yourself always 
preserve them, and when you come to the end of life reveal 
them to the foremost in power alone, and let him ever show 
them to his successor ; and thus you will inhabit this city 
unhurt by the men that sprung from the di-agon's teeth*. 
But numberless cities, even though one rule them well, easily 
give way to insolence ; for the gods full well, though late, 
pay regard when any one, despising holy things, may betake 
himself to frenzy ; which do you, O son of -ZEgeus, be un- 
willing to suffer. I instruct, however, one who knows such 
things. But let us new go to the spot, for a present impulse 
from the god urges me on, nor yet let us feel awed. Oh, my 
daughters, this way follow me, for I in turn have appeared a 
new guide to you, as ye were to your father. Go, and do 
not touch me, but suffer me myself to find out the sacred 
tomb where it is fated for me to be ensepulchred beneath 
this soil. This yrsj, hither, this way advance, for this way 
there is leading me en Hermes the conductor^, and she, the 
goddess of the shades'. Hght, rayless to me, formerly 
somewhere, once on a time, thou wert mine, and now, for 
the last time, my body touches thee : for now I go to conceal 
the close of my life in the shades. But, O dearest of friends ! 
may both you, and this land, and your servants^, be blessed 
of heaven, and in your success remember my death, ever 
prospering. 

Ch. If it be lawful for me to worship with prayers the 

1 A designation of the Thebans, derived from their fabulous origin. 

2 That is, the conductor of the dead. 
2 Proserpine. 

^ The Athenian people. 



104 (EDIPUS COLONEUS. 1557—1594, 

unseen goddess*, and thee, O Pluto, Pluto, king of those who 
dwell in night, I beseech you that neither with pain, nor 
in a painful death of bitter suffering, the stranger accomplish 
his way to the plain of the dead below the earth that encloses 
all mortals, and to the Stygian mansions. For many suffer- 
ings, and those undeservedly, having come upon you', may 
the just divinity again exalt you. ya goddesses below the 
earth, and form of the invincible monctsr, who, they say, has 
his lair by the well-polished gates', and whom fame ever 
reports to growl from his den, the uneoKquerable guardian of 
Orcus .... whom, O son of Earth and Tartarus, I implore 
gently to meet the stranger advancing to the infernal plains 
of the dead ; thee I invoke, thee, who never slumberest. 

Messenger. Ye citizens, I may in very brief words ex- 
press to you that GEdipus is dead: but what was done, 
neither is there language to relate shortly, nor the circum- 
stances, as many as took place there*. 

Ch. For has the wretched man perished ? 

Mess. Be assured that he has for ever bid farewell to life. 

Ch. How ? Did the unhappy man die by a doom sent from 
heaven, and void of pain ? 

Mess. This already is fit even to excite astonishment. For 
how indeed he went hence, you toe, being somewhere present, 
know, no one of his friends acting as g'j.ide, but he himself 
leading the way to us all. But when he came to the threshold 
of the steep descent, firm-rooted in eai-th with brazen steps, 
he stood in one of the many-dividing ways near the hollow 
cave, where lie the ever faithful pledges of Theseus and Piri- 

* " Cur deos inferos adoraturus veniam quasi praefatur.' An qnod 
Pluto Krided re arovaxcLQ t iXax^ (ut ait Stesichorus) non preces?" 
Musgrave. 

2 Mdrav. Having come vainly, because foere \ras no occasion for 
them by prior guilt. 

3 The gates of the infernal regions appear to be called well-polished, or, 
more Uterally, polished by many, from the crowds that constantly made 
their entrance. We have something similar in Lucretius : — 

*' tum, portas propter, ahena 

Signa manus dextras obtendunt adtenuari 

Saepe salutantum tactu, prseterque meantum." — Lib. I. 317. Tr. 
— ^Wunder reads ttoXvUvoiq from Musgrave's conjecture. B. 

* If so very much took place during the time that the Chorus was 
singing this stave, we are afraid that one of the unities, to which the 
Greeks paid such attention, must have been not a little violated. 



1595—1632. OEDIPUS eOLONEUS. 105 

tlious^ Standing between which place, and the Thorician 
rock, and the hollow thorn and the sepulchre of stone, he sat 
him down. Then he loosed his squalid garments : and next, 
having called on his daughters, he ordered them from seme place 
to bring the water for tbs bath, and libations from the running 
stream. And they, going to ths conspicuous hill of the ver- 
dant Ceres, performed in a sliort time these injunctions to 
their father ; and v/ith lavers and with robes thej decked him 
out in the way that is ritual. And when he had satisfaction 
in everything being done, and there was nothing any longer 
undone of what he desired, Jove indeed thundered beneath the 
earth, and the virgins were frozen with horror as they heard 
it ; and falling at the knees of their father, they wept, nor did 
they cease from beatings of the breast and lengthensd groans. 
But he, as he suddenly heard their bitter cries, folding his 
hands over them, said, " O children, there is no longer to you 
this day a father : for all that was mine has perished, and you 
no longer shall have the dijficult toil of supporting me : griev- 
ous it was, I know, my daughters ; but yet one v^ord does 
away with all these troubles : for you enjoyed love from no 
one more than from me, of whom deprived, you will now 
spend the remainder of your life." Thus clinging to one 
another, they all, with sobs, wept. But when they came to 
the end of their wailings, and no cry arose, silence indeed 
prevailed : but the voice of some one on a sudden Icadly called 
him, so that all, trembling with terror, instantly raised upright 
their hairs. For the god oft in various ways summons him ; 
— " Ho you ! ho you (Edipus ! w]!iy linger we to depart ? 
Long since there is delay on your part." But he, Avhen he 
perceived he was summoned by the god, calls on Theseus, the 
king of the land, to come to him ; and when he came, said, 
" beloved friend, pledge to my children the former faith of 



^ Theseus had made a solemn league of friendship with Pirithous on 
this spot, and agreed to accompany him to the lower regions to assist him 
in recovering Proserpine, the object of his passionate love, from the 
clutches of Pluto. The love and the friendship were alike ill-starred. 
Theseus was separated from his heroic companion by an earthquake, and 
with difF.culty regained the light; but Pirithous v/as detained, and con- 
demned to eternal darkness and chains. 

" amatorem trecentee 

Pirithoum cohibent catense." — Horace. 



106 (EDIPUS COLONEITS. 1633—1668. 

your right hand^ ; and ye, my daughters, to him ; and solemn- 
ly ratify that you will never willingly betray them, but will 
always perform whatsoever you conceive advantageous to 
them." And he, like a noble man without lamentations, pro- 
mised on oath to perform these things to the stranger. And 
when he had done this, (Edipus, touching with unseeing hands 
his children, says, " children twain, it is necessary that, 
supporting generous resolutions in your minds, you should 
depart from these places, nor claim to see what it is not lawful 
to see, nor to hear those speaking such things^. But depart 
as quickly as possible, only let king Theseus be present to 
learn what is done." So much we all heard him utter, and 
groaning with abundant tears, we departed along with the 
virgins ; and when we had gone away, turning in a short time, 
we saw the man no longer, indeed, anywhere present, but the 
king himself, holding his hand over his brow to shade his 
eyes, as if some horrible sight of fear had been disclosed, nor 
what was endurable to look upon'. A little afterwards, 
and in no long time, we see him paying adoration to earth 
and to Olympus, seat of the gods, in the same prayer. But 
by what fate he perished no one of mortals can tell, except 
Theseus : for neither did any bolt of the god, winged with 
lightning, destroy him, nor tempest raised from ocean at that 
moment ; but it was either some messenger from the gods, or 
sunless gap* of the shades beneath the earth, mercifully opening 
to receive him. For the man is not to be lamented, nor was he 
dismissed from life wretched with disease, but, if any other of 
mortals, worthy of admiration. And if I seem to speak not 
being in my senses, I would not yield to those to whom I 
appeared deprived of sense. 

Ch. But where are his children and the friends who con- 
ducted them ? 

Mess. They are not far off, for the sounds of mourning not 

1 *' The faith which I have already tried and proved in your protection 
of me." 

2 We are afraid this would operate with most women as a strong in- 
ducement to disregard the advice. 

^ The picture to the eye is here admirable, and affords one of the best 
examples of the author's graphic power. The whole of the description, 
indeed, is at once interesting and sublime, and has obtained peculiar 
praises from the highest critical source, — the pen of Longinus. 

^ So Wunder, from the Scholia, for oXv-ktitov. B. 



1669—1704. (EDiPirs coloneus. 107 

indistinct signify to us that they are approacliing hither- 
ward. 

Ant. Woe, woe ! alas ! 'tis not for us hapless^ to mourn 
in this, or that respect, the accursed kindred blood of our 
father, for whom we firmly bore many toils in many places, 
but in this last shall endure incalculable calamities, seeing and 
suffering them. 

Ch. What is it? 

Ant. Ye may conceive it, my fi-iends. 

Ch. Is he gone ? 

Ant. Yes, as you would feel most desirous he should. For 
why? whom neither Mars nor ocean met, but the unseen 
plains, bearing him with them, swallowed in a certain myste- 
rious fate. Unhappy woman that I am ! for to us has the 
night of destruction come over our eyes ; for how, wandering 
either to some foreign land, or over the billows of the deep, 
shall we gain life's hard-earned subsistence? 

Ism. I know not. May bloody Pluto bear me down, to die 
imhappy along with my aged father ; since to me at least, the 
life to come is not worth living for. 

Ch. Oh ye twain, best of childi'en, it is fit to bear that well, 
which comes from god, nor do ye too much inflame your 
grief : your lot is not to be found fault rrith. 

Ant. There was then some desire even of miseries ; for 
that which is by no means pleasant, was pleasant when, at 
least, I held him in my arms. Oh father ! oh dear father ! 
on thou who art enveloped for ever in darkness beneath the 
earth, neither in your old age were you ever unbeloved by 
me, nor shall be. 

Ch. He has fared 

1 The scholiast has here very rashly ventured on a piece of criticism. 
His words are, tcl e<pe^rJQ rou ^pd[jMTog qvk Ictlv svKaTafpovrjra. We 
differ with him toto coelo. The play ought to have ended -with the speech 
of the messenger, and to have closed, as the interest closes, with the sub- 
lime catastrophe there so magnificently described. The whinings of the 
girls after this could not fail to appear feeble ; and to complete this natural 
disadvantage under which they labour, the poet has contrived to render 
them most intolerably stupid. Some, however, may be of the pathetic 
scholiast's opinion; and to them we willingly make a present of al, ai, 
(j>ev, (j)ev, and Co. Tr. — Thei-e is the same anticUmax, or rather tedious 
" tag," to the Perssa of iEschylus, and the King Henry the Eighth of 
Shakespere. But the Greeks, as well as the modern dramatists, oftea 
fell victims to " legitimate" five-act measure. B. 



108 (EDIPXTS COLONEUS. 1704—1743 

Ant. He has fared as he wished. 

Ch. And how ? 

Ant. As he desired, he has died in a foreign land, and 
he has an ever-shaded bed beneath the earth, nor has he left 
mourning without tears ; for ever, oh father, this my weep- 
ing eye laments you, nor know I how it is possible for me, 
wretched, to banish such great affliction. Alas ! you ought 
not to have died in a foreign land, but thus you have died 
deserted by me. 

IsM. Oh unhappy me ! what desolate distressing fate again 
awaits me and thee, dear sister, thus bereft of a father ! 

Ch. But since he has happily at least, dear virgins, closed 
the term of life, cease from this sorrow, for no one is a diffi- 
cult prey to misfortune. 

Ant. Let us haste, loved sister, back. 

Ism. That we may do what ? 

Ant. a desire possesses me 

Ism. What? 

Ant. To see the sepulchral home 

IsM. Of whom ? 

Ant. Of our father Oh, unhappy me ! 

Ism. But how is this lawful? Do you not see 

Ant. Why do you reprove this? 

Ism. And this, how * 

Ant. Why this so much again 

Ism. He has fallen unburied, and apart from every one. 

Ant. Conduct me, and then slay me. 

Ism. Woe, woe is me, imhappy! ^\Tiere, in truth, hence- 
forth shall I, thus desolate and in want, endure my wretched 
existence ? 

Ch. Dear maids, fear nothing. 

Ant. But where shall I fly? 

Ch. Even before there has escaped 

Ant. From what ? 

Ch. Your state from falling into misery. 

Ant. I think 

Ch. "N^Tiat, in truth, do you over wisely think. 

Ant. I know not how we shall return home. 

Ch. Do not then enquire into it. 

* The meaning of these two or three speeches is obviously destroyed by 
corruption, or rather mutilation, of the text. 



1743—1780. (EDTPUS C0L0NET7S. ^ 109 

Ant. Trouble possesses me. 
Ch. And formerly did. 

Ant. At one time indeed it advances farther, and at an- 
other passes all bounds. 

Ch. Ye have then obtained for your lot a vast sea [oi 
troubles.] 

Ant. Yea, yeaK 
Ch. I too assent to it. 

Ant. Alas ! alas ! where shall M'e go, Jove ? for to what 
hope does the god now, at least, incite us ? 

Thesexts. Cease, virgins, from your dirges, for in those 
cases where joy at least is stored up beneath the earth, we 
ought not to mourn ; for there would be indignation of heaven. 
Ant. 0, son of ^geus ! we fall down before thee. 
Th. To grant what boon, ye maids ? 

Ant. We wish with our own eyes to behold the tomb of 
our father. 

Th. But it is not lawful. 
Ant. How sayest thou, king, ruler of Athens? 
Th. He forbade me, virgins, that any one of mortals should 
approach those places, or address the sacred sepulchre which 
he tenants ; and he said, if I did this, that I should always 
gloriously possess this land uninjured. These words of ours, 
therefore, Jove heard, and he that hears everything, the oath 
of Jove. 

Ant. If these things are agreeable to him, they will suffice 
to us : but send us to Ogygian Thebes, if we may in any way 
prevent the slaughter coming on our brothers. 

Th. I will do this, and every thing at least which I am 
about to perform advantageous to you, and gratifying to him 
below the earth, who is just gone : for it does not befit me to 
weary in this task. 

Ch. But cease, nor any longer awake the voice of sorrow ; 
for these things completely have ratification. 

^ These two lines are omitted by Dind. and Wunder. B. 



1—4 



ELECTRA'. 



Orestes, in company with his tutor and Pylades, comes to Argos, and, 
having deceived ^Egisthus and Clytemnestra with the report that he had 
been killed by falling from his chariot in the Olympic games, he reveals 
his being yet alive to his sister, who had bewailed him as dead, and 
slays the two murderers, while vainly exulting in his own supposed 
end. B. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 



Attendant. 
Orestes. 
Electra. 
Chorus. 



Chrysothemis. 
Clytemnestra. 
^gisthus. 



Attendant. O son of Agamemnon wlio once commanded 
the army at Troy^, now mayest thou here present behold those 
things, for which thou wert ever eagerly longing. For this is 
the ancient Ai'gos', which thou didst desire, the grove of the 

^ This play was translated into Latin by Attilius. Cic. de Fin. I. c. ii. 
§.5. "A quihus tantum dissentio, ut, quum Sophocles vel opiime scrip- 
serit Electram, tamen male conversam Attilii legendam puiem,- de quo 
Licinius, ferreum scriptorern; verum, opinor, scriptorem tamen, ut 
legendus sit." See Bentley on Tus. Queest. p. 56. Hermann. 

2 Euripides twitted Sophocles with this line as superfluous, who re- 
torted with the same objection on the two first lines of the Phoenissse. 
Sch. ad Phoen. Hermann thinks either exordium would be the worse for 
the omission. 

2 Argos is here applied to the country by Brunck; but according to 
the Museum Criticum, No. I. " The cities of Argos and Mycenae, being 
almost contiguous, went by the general name of Argos, as the two cities 
of London and Westminster are known by the common denomination ot 
London." If the ancient reading, to yap — be revived, and the colon 
after ovirSOeig removed, take aXaog in apposition with Argos. Brunck's 
reading injures the metre. Hermann quotes Euripides to defend Sopho- 
cles' boldness; Ivdxov poai: he considers Argos used loosely to deno- 
minate the whole country and its divisions alike. 



5—36. ELECTRA. 1 1 1 

frenzy-stricken daughter of Inachus^ and this, Orestes, the 
Lycaean forum of the wolf-slaying god; but this on the left, 
the renowned temple of Juno ; and for the place whither we 
are arrived, assure thyself thou seest the all- opulent Mycenae : 
and this the habitation of the Pelopidae teeming with murders, 
whence I formerly, having received thee from thine own sister, 
bore and rescued thee from thy father's bloody fate, and 
nourished thee thus far onwards in thy youth, as an avenger 
of his murder to thy sire. Now therefore, Orestes, and thou , 
Pylades*, dearest of foreign friends, what it is needful to do 
we must quickly consider, since already the brilliant light of 
the sun wakes clear the morning carols of the birds, and the 
dark night has gone from heaven'. Ere therefore any of the 
inhabitants walk forth from his dwelling, we must confer in 
counsel, since we are come to that point where there is no 
longer any season for delay, but the crisis for action. 

Orestes. most beloved of serving-men, what evident 
proofs showest thou that thou art good towards us : for even 
as a generous horse, although he be aged, in danger has not 
lost his spirit, but pricks his ears upright, even so thou both 
urgest us forward and art among the first to follow us. 
Wherefore my determinations will I unfold; and do thou, 
lending an alert attention to my words, if in aught I miss of 
what is fitting, set me right. For when 1 came a suppliant to 
the Pythian oracle, that I might learn in what way I should 
exact justice for my father from his murderers, Phcebus gave 
me an answer, such as thou presently shalt hear: "That in 
person, alike imfumished with armour and with martial host, 

^ lo, whose story is told in the Prometheus of ^sehylus, from which 
play the word oiarpdirXr)^ is horrowed. The temple of Jnno was, accord- 
ing to Strabo, fifteen stades to the left of the town: she was the patroness 
of Argos. 

2 Pylades was the son of Strophius, a Phocian prince, by a sister of 
Agamemnon, and being educated with his cousin Orestes, formed with 
him a friendship that has become proverbial. 

^ Commentators disagree on the interpretation of this place. The 
scholiast suggests two constructions, an antiptosis, fie\aiv7]Q vvktoq to. 
cicrrpa iKXeXoiirsv, which has been followed by Brunck, and tKXkXoiTre 
Tu)v dffTpujv t) [xeXaiva sixppovT]. Musgrave translates tJcXeXoiTrev ex- 
cessif, understanding darpa to mean the whole heavens, as Virgil. JEn 
III. 567. 

" Ter spumam elisara et rorantia vidimus astra." 
And this last is approved of by Monk in the Museum Criticum. 



112 ELECTRA. 36—63. 

by craft I should steal the lawful slaughter of mine hand." 
Since then we have heard such an oracle as this, do thou 
entering, when opportunity shall introduce thee, into this 
house, learn all that there is doing, that being informed thou 
mayest tell us sure tidings. For fear not that with both thine 
own age and the long lapse of time they shall recognise thee, 
or even suspect thee thus tricked out^ But make use of some 
such tale as this, that thou art a Phocian*, stranger, coming 
from Phanoteus, since he is the chiefest of the foreign allies 
they have. But announce, adding an oath', that Orestes is 
dead by a violent death, having been tumbled from a wheeled 
chariot car at the Pythian games. So let thy story stand. 
But we having, as he enjoined, first crowned my father's 
sepulchre with libations and locks cropped from my head, will 
then come back again, bearing in our hands a brazen-sided 
vessel, which thou also knowest is somewhere hidden among 
the brushwood, that cheating them with words v^e may bring 
them pleasant tidings, how that my body is perished, already 
consumed by fire and reduced to ashes. For what does this 
pain me, when, dead in words, in deeds I shall be safe, and 
bear away renown? I indeed think no expression ill-omened 
which gain attends*. For already have I frequently seen the 
wise also in story falsely dying* : then afterwards, when they 

^ Musgrave objects to this meaning of the word riv9i(Tfisvov, and also 
to the scholiast's idea: he proposes himself to render it " canis capillis 
variegatum." avQog is certainly applied to the hair. Suidas and Mos- 
chopulus are against him. 

2 ^(i)Kewg Trap' dvSpbg ^avoreojg is Blomfield's reading. Mus. Grit. 
^(jjKsvg. H. 

3 The objection of Camerarius, that Orestes shoidd not be made to 
advise perjury, has given Musgrave great trouble ; and he proposes for 
opKciJ to read 6yK<^. But it is too true that Orestes, bv his oven admis- 
sions just after, could make, like Ulysses, his own principles and those of 
others equally subservient to his interests, without much remorse. For 
the suppressed word dyyeXiav, see Brunck's note. 

^ Tlxus Menelaus in Euripides: 

icaKog fiev opvig' ei Si Kspdavui Xeywv 
STOLfiog £('/it, ju?7 9av<jjv, Xoyqt QaveXv. 
^ ITiis alludes to Pythagoras, who feigned himself dead to acquire the 
reputation of prophetic skill. Zamolxis and Aristeus of Proconnesus, 
author of the Arimaspians, have similar stories told of them by Hero- 
dotus, B. IV. Hermann wonders at the commentators for their illus- 
trations here, understanding the poet to allude to such distinguished men 



64—93. ELECTRA. 113 

shaU again have returned home, they have been the more hon- 
oured. As I presume that I also, coming to life subsequently to 
this report, shall yet blaze forth, as a star, to my foes. But 
O land of my forefathers, and ye its gods indigenous, welcome 
me as prosperous in this my journey; and thou too, O abode 
of my ancestors, for, urged by an impulse from heaven, I come 
to purge thee by my just revenge: then dismiss me not in 
dishonour from this my country, but [make me] master of my 
wealth and the restorer of my house^. This now have I said, 
but, old man, be it at once thy care, having gone, to execute 
with caution thy duty, but we will go forth, for it is the season; 
which indeed is to mankind the greatest arbiter of every act^. 

Electea. Alas! ah me unhappy! 

At. In sooth methought I heard from the door some female 
servant inside heaving a suppressed sigh, my son. 

Ok. Can it be the hapless Electra? wilt thou we tarry here 
and listen to her cries? 

At. By no means. Let us attempt to execute nothing prior 
to the commands of Loxias', and from these to commence our 
course, pouring out the libations to thy father, for this brings 
us both victory and strength in action. 

El. holy light, and air that sharest equal space with 
earth, how many a strain of mournful dii'ges, how many a blow 
against my bleeding breast hast thou witnessed for me, when 
murky night shall have retired* ! But for my Hvelong nights — 
the hateful couches of this house of woes are conscious : how 

generally as, being at one time in disgrace with and banishment from 
their country, were afterwards held in greater repute than ever. 

^ This maybe given better thus, perhaps: " And make me not a dis- 
honoured outcast from my country, but a master," etc. 

2 Thus in Pliiloctetes, v. 837. 

Kaipog TOi 7rdvT(t)v yvaifxav "laxtov 
TToXi) Trapa TroSa icpdroQ apwrai. 

^ "The epithet 'Loxian,' so constantly used by the Greek poets is 
interpreted by the scholia in two ways, either as referring to the oblique 
direction of his voice, (i. e. the ambiguity of his oracles,) or as belonging 
to him from the oblique path of the sun through the ecUptic/' Oxf. 
Translation of Aristophanes. 

^ 'TTToXsKpOy, Schol. TrapeXOy, Brunck, recessit. Musgrave says, 
*' v-KokeiTTHv, quod pro deficere, mimii positum citat Budseus ex Aris- 
totele, melius omnino hie convenit quara passivum VTroXeiireaBat, quod 
resto, supersum valet. Utrum tamen legendum sit vTroXeiTry an i'tto- 
Xet'v//^, mihi non satis Uquet." 



114 ELECTRA. 94—127. 

oft I mourn mine unhappy sire, whom in a foreign coimtry 
gory Mars entertained not\ but my mother, and jEgisthus the 
partner of her bed, lop off his head with murderous axe, as 
wood-cutters an oak. And for all this no pity is felt by any 
other save me, when thou, my father, hast perished so dis- 
gracefully and piteously. But never then will I desist from 
laments and bitter cries, as long as I look on the all-glowing 
beams of the stars, as I look on this daylight ; so as not, like 
some nightingale that has lost her young', to pour forth to all 
mine echo inviting to shrill lament before these gates of my 
native home. O abode of Pluto and of Proserpine, O nether 
Mercury' and awful Curse, and ye venerable children of the 
gods, ye Fmies, who regard them that unjustly perish, them 
that by stealth usurp another's bed*, come ye, lend aid, avenge 
the mm-der of our father, and to me send my brother, for alone 
I have no longer strength to weigh up the burden of affliction 
that is in the opposite scale. 

Chords. Ah! Electra, child, child of a most wretched^ mo- 
ther, why thus insatiably dost thou pine in lamentation, for 
Agamemnon long since taken most godlessly in snares by thy 
crafty mother and to an evil hand betrayed ? O that he who 
caused this might perish, if it be lawful for me to utter this. 

^ Cf. JEsch. Choeph. 345, ei yap vtt' 'iXi^j Tlpog tivoq Kvk'hov, Trdrtp 
dopLTixrjTog KaTrivapiaOrjQ. B. 

2 Brunck translates the Greek word, " pullis orbata." Musgrave, 
however, considering it an allusion to the fate of Philomela and Itys, 
renders it " liberorum suorum interfectrix." As Franklin observes on 
V. 147, Procne, who put Itjrs to death, is supposed by iEschylus, Euri- 
pides, and Aristophanes, (in his play of the Birds,) to have been changed 
into a nightingale. 

2 Mercury is addressed by this name in allusion to his office as con- 
ductor of the dead : — 

" Animas ille evocat Oreo 

PallenteSj alias sub Tartara tristia mittit; 
Dat somnos adimitque, et lumina morte resignat." 
From the third office enumerated by Virgil, we may suppose that Electra's 
prayers had already been effectually addressed to this god, as Clytemnestra 
shortly after sends offerings to Agamemnon's tomb in consequence of 
having had her rest disturbed by dreams of ill omen. 

^ Hermann, admitting an hiatus of some words before tovq, fiUs it up 
thus: aiaxp{l)g\kKTpo)v Trpo^oTovQ ivvaQ, quibus furto ereptus est pro- 
ditus torus. 

5 " Awffravorarag, Schol. l^uAtaTdTTjg recte. Vide Musgravium ad 
Euripidis Here. Fur. 1349." Brunck. 



128—163. ELECTRA. 115 

El. Offspring of noble parents, ye are come as the solace of 
my troubles ; I both know and am conscious of this ; in no 
wise does it escape me, nor will I forsake this [task] so as not 
to bemoan my wretched father. But, ye that requite the boon 
of every kind of friendship, leave me thus to languish, alas ! 
alas ! I implore you. 

Ch. Yet still thou wilt never raise thy father at least from 
the lake of Pluto, man's common bourne, neither by shrieks 
nor prayers^. But from moderate [laments] to a grief beyond 
reason, thou ever with groans art perishing. In matters 
wherein there is no release from evil, why, I pray you, art 
thou fond of misery intolerable ? 

El. Foolish he, who is forgetful of his parents calamitously 
deceased. But the sorrower that mourns for Itys^, ever Itys, 
that affrighted bird, messenger of Jove, accords with my feel- 
ings at least. all- wretched Niobe, thee, thee I account a 
deity, who ever in thy stony tomb weepest, alas ! alas ! * 

Ch. Not to thee alone, be sure, my child, among mankind 
hath grief arisen, wherewith thou sm-passest those within, 
with whom thou art from the same source, and by birth akin: 
as is the life of Chrysothemis and Iphianassa, and he that 
sorroweth in his youth concealed', whom one day the re- 
nowned land of the Mycenians shall welcome haply, in ances- 
try illustrious, under the benign conduct of Jove returning to 
this land, Orestes*. 

^ Hermann reads avraiQ, the vestiges of which he thinks he has found 
in Hesychius : avrrjasL (scribe avryai,) XiTavdaiQ, avrrjataLv. 

2 Penelope, in the Odyssey, similarly describes her grief. Od. xix. 
620. See some excellent observations on the line fyre Qaixa TpoTruxra 
Xf£t 7ro\v?;x£a (jxovrjv among Twining's remarks on the expression of 
musical sound by poetry. Arist. Poet. Prel. Diss. 

^ Hermann makes dx«wv a noun, and construes it with KpvirT^. 
*' Happy in a youth unknown to sorrows:" semota a doloribus. This 
is much less forced than the common version. Tr, — But if Orestes was 
free from evils, why mention him ? If we read fcpvTrr^ ^' a\kiiiv, and put 
a longer stop after 'Icpidvaffcra, we shall have a better sense: " thou art, 
like them unhappy; but blest is he, whom now in age of sorrow reckless 
at some time Mycene's glorious land shall hail." B. 

■* The withholding this magic of a name till the last, to crown the affec- 
tionate appeal to Electra's happier thoughts, is worthy of Sophocles; and 
if equalled at aU, is so in the turn given by Electra's wounded spirit to 
that which was meant so differently. This, however, none of the older 
editors have preserved ; and Brunck's and Musgrave's annotations on this 
passage show their error. 

i2 



116 ELECTRA. 164—204. 

El. Whom forsooth I unceasingly expecting, wretch that I 
am ! childless, un wedded, am ever roaming, drenched in tears, 
supporting unceasing pain of miseries; while he is forgetful 
of all that he has received, and all he has been taught. For 
what message goes forth from me that is not mocked? Since 
he is ever longing indeed, but though he longs, he deigns not 
to make his appearance. 

Ch. Courage, my daughter, courage! There is a mighty 
Jove in heaven^, who overlooketh and swayeth all things; to 
whom referring thy too bitter choler, be neither over indignant 
with nor forgetful of those whom thou detestest : for time is a 
lenient god. Since neither is the son of Agamemnon that 
lives on the herd-pasturing shore of Crisa* without return, nor 
the god that reigns by Acheron. 

El. But from me the greater part of life hath already 
passed away without hope, nor can I longer endure, who with- 
out parents am wasting myself away, for whom no man stands 
forth as champion, but like some worthless stranger T dwell 
in the chambers of my father, in raiment thus disgraceful, and 
take my place at empty tables. 

Ch. Pitiable indeed were the words at his return', and 
pitiable that in thy father's chambers, when the adverse stroke 
of the all-brazen axe was inflicted on him. Fraud it was that 
prompted, lust that perpetrated, the murder, having fearfully 
brought into being a fearful shape'^, whether it were god or 
inortal that did all this 

El. Oh! that day, that dawned above all indeed most hate- 
ful to me : night, O shocking woes of that horrible banquet 

* Plato Phsedr. p. 344, H. 6 fiev ^j) ixeyag rjyefnov Kar ovpavbv Zevg 
....SiaKOffjxCJv Trdvra Kai tTnixeXofievcQ. Cf. Themist. Orat. xv. p. 332; 
Maximus Tyr, xxix. p. 348. B. 

2 Crisa, usually written Crissa, was a large town of Phocis, said to be 
the capital of Strophius. It gave name to the Crisssean bay, the scene of 
several actions in the Peloponnesian war. 

2 Alluding to the presaging sorrow of the Argive people on Agamem- 
non's return, the adulterous loves of ^gisthus and Clytemnestra being 
known to them. See ^schjlus. 
'* Precisely Shakespeare's idea: — 

" Between the acting of a dreadful thing. 
And the first motion, all the interim is 
Like a phautasma, or a hideous dream." 

Jul. Cses. act 2, sc. 1. 



205—243. ELECTRA. 117 

—the disgraceful death my sire beheld from twain assassins, 
that seized upon my life betrayed, that destroyed me! To 
whom may the mighty god of Olympus give to endure retri- 
butive sufferings, and may they never enjoy their splendour, 
having accomplished such deeds. 

Ch. Bethink thee: speak no further : art thou not conscious* 
from what a state thou fallest at present into hardships all 
thine own thus unworthily ! For thou hast incurred over and 
above an excess of evils, continually gendering quarrels by thy 
sad spirit. But these matters are not worth the strife, to cope 
with those in power'. 

El. By dreadful woes have I been forced to it, ay, terrible. 
I am fully conscious of my wrath, nor does it escape me. But 
enough, amid such atrocious crimes I shall never check' these 
miseries as long as life shall contain me. For from whom, O 
friendly race, could I ever hear a profitable word? from whom 
that which is opportune. Forbear, forbear me, ye comforters : 
for these woes shall be ne'er relaxed ! never will I rest from 
these troubles thus countless in my laments. 

Ch. Nay, but with good- will at least I advise as a faithful 
mother, that thou beget not woe on woe. 

El. And what measure exists to my wretchedness ? Come, 
how is it honourable to be careless of the dead ? with whom 
of mankind originated this*? May I neither be had in honour 
among them, nor if I am united to any good may I dwell with 
it in tranquillity, if I repress the flights of my shrill-toned 

^ Musgrave, in his notes, proposes the following alterations in these 
lines : — 

Ov yv(i)jj,av "iffx^ig l^ cxriov 

TCI. TrapovT oiKsXg, li t eig drag 

'"Eifnr'nrTeig ouro* OKaiiLg. 
He also interprets, and perhaps with correctness, cltt] by vesania. Tr. — 
oiKeiag drag, " evils all your own." For Electra had not shewn the 
same submission as Chrysothemis, and consequently met with harsher 
treatment. B. 

2 Herm. '^'vx^ TroXsj-iovg, rdds roig dwaroig 

Oi)K Ipiord ttXclQuv. 
" So as to cope with those in power on these points which admit not of 
gainsaying." Tr. — Perhaps we should read ,T\d9<t)v, B. 

3 drag, see v. 208. 

■* Or, " in whom of men hath this arisen.'" This is perhaps the better 
translation. Brunck's Latin version has, ubinam hcmo est eo ingenio 
xtatm? 



118 ELECTRA. 244—282. 

shrieks to the dishonour of my parents. For if he having 
fallen shall lie in earth, a thing of nought, and they shall not 
in turn give satisfaction with blood for blood, then may shame 
and piety from all mankind be annihilated^. 

Ch. I indeed, my child, came to promote at once thy 
w^elfare and mine own ; but if I advise not well, do thou prevail, 
for we will follow in thy company. 

El. Ladies, I blush, if in my many lamentations I seem to 
you to be too downhearted, yet, for their violence forces me to 
do it, forgive me. For how could any woman of high family, 
looking on her father's vn-ongs, not act thus? wrongs that by 
day and by night I see continually budding rather than 
withering'^; to whom, in the first place, the deeds of the 
mother that bore me have turned out most hateful ; next, in 
mine own home I consort with the assassins of my father, and 
by these I am controlled, and from these it is my lot alike to 
receive and to want : furthermore, what manner of days think 
you I pass, when I behold ^gisthus seated on my father's 
throne ; and look on him dressed in the very gannents that he 
wore', and pouring ouf libations to the household gods, where 
he slew him? when I see too the crowning insult of all this, 
the assassin himself in the bed of my father with my guilty 
mother, if I must call her mother, thus cohabiting with him? 
So hardened is she, that she lives with that pollution, in fear 
of no avenging Fury; but as if triumphantly laughing at what 
she has done, having looked out for that day on which she 
formerly slew my father by treachery, on that day she insti- 
tutes the festive dance, and sacrifices the monthly ofierings of 
sheep to her guardian gods*; while I, the miserable, witnessing 

^ Timon's curse on Athens, when he quits it for ever, is a fine ampli- 
fication of this prayer (if it be a prayer) of Electra. See Timon of 
Athens, act 4, sc. 1. 

2 Similarly Philoctetes: — 

t] S' i-ixri voaoQ 
ad TsOrjXs, k^tti fiCit,ov «p%6rai. V. 258. 

3 " Yestimenta regibus solemniter gestata. Statins. Theb. v. 315, 
notas, regum gestamina, Testes : et vi. 80. cultusque, insignia regni, Pur- 
pureos. Germanic. Arat. Phaenomen. Reges — satis religiose tunicati. 
Nonnus. K. 20. 

Pa<n\r]ia (paidpa TOKrjog 
AvaaTO, Tropfvpsq) TrsTraXayfisva <pdpea K6x(i>.'* Musgrave. 
* " Clytemnestra, in imitation of the solemn honours paid to the gods 



282—307. ELECTRA. lid 

all this at home, lament, pine away, and shriek over the ill- 
omened feast that bears my father's name; alone, to myself, 
for I have not power even to weep so much as my soul has 
pleasure in doing; since the woman herself, in words high- 
spirited^, accosts and reviles me with such harsh terms as 
these : " O god-detested thing of hate, to thee alone is thy 
father dead? Is none else of mankind in grief? Mayest thou 
perish evilly, nor may the nether gods ever release thee from 
thy present woes." Thus she insults me : but when she hears 
from any that Orestes is about to come, then infuriate she 
comes and cries aloud: " Art thou not the cause of all this to 
me ? Is not this thy work, that didst steal and spirit away 
Orestes from my hands? But h? assured that thou shalt pay 
a deserved penalty at least*." Thus does she bark upon me, 
and with her close at her side sets her on to this that glorious 
man, her husband, that utter dastard, that very pest, that 
fighter of his battles with woman's aid. Wliile I, unhappy, 
expecting from time to time that Orestes will come upon them 
to put a stop to all this, am undone. For, ever purposing to 
effect something, he hath ruined my .hopes both present and to 
come^. In such a condition then, my friends, there is no room 

and heroes on the new moons, called therefore, efXfirjva iepd, instituted a 
monthly festival, with sacrifices to the gods her preservers, on the day on 
which Agamemnon was murdered. This was celebrated with songs and 
dances, and a feast insolently called Epulse Agamemnoniae." Potter. To 
which Franklin adds, that Dinias, in his history of Argos, informs us it 
was on the thirteenth of the month Gamelion, which answers to the 
beginning of our January, or, according to Potter, the latter end of that 
month, or beginning of February. 

^ Musgrave objects to the idea of Clytemnestra being noble in words, 
and proposes to read Xoxoiai yevvaia, ilia in insidiisfortis. Tr. — But as 
■ytvvaloq is often used ironically, we may very well take ytvv. Xoy. to 
mean "word-valiant." The translation, "as she is called," is quite 
wrong. B. 

2 Indeed it is by no means easy to see why Electra had not ere this 
fallen a victim to the vengeance of her mother, as by her own account she 
took no pains to conceal her abhorrence of Clytemnestra's conduct. Per- 
haps we must refer it to the same cause which, in the Odyssey, preserves 
Telemachus so long — superstition ; to which the Greeks were most prone, 
and which by no means ceases with religion and virtue, as both the 
impious festival and penitential offerings of the Argive queen sufficiently 
prove. 

^ By ovaaq Koi airoiffag, Hermann understands her hopes in herself 
present and in Orestes absent. Many probably will disagree with him. 



120 ELECTRA. 308—337. 

for either prudence or proper respect, but in evils forsooth, 
there is absolute necessity to be subservient to evil. 

Ch. Come, tell me, whether sayest thou all this to us, 
^ofisthus being at hand, or having quitted his home ? 

El. Even so. Think not I could walk abroad were he 
near ; but now he happens to be in the country. 

Ch. Truly then would I with greater boldness join with 
thee in discourse, if this be indeed so. 

El, As he is now absent, question what thou wilt. 

Ch. Then I ask thee, what sayest thou of thy brother ? 
will he come, or delays he ? I wish to know. 

El, He promises at least, but promising he performs 
nought of what he says, 

Ch, Ay, for man in the performance of a mighty deed is 
wont to delay. 

El, And yet it was not with delay I saved him. 

Ch. Courage ; he is naturally generous to aid his friends. 

El, I am confident of it, else had I not long to live, 

Ch. Speak nothing further at present, since coming out of 
the house I perceive thy sister, by birth of the same father 
and mother, Chrysothemis*, bearing sepulchral offerings in 
her hands, such as are the appointed due of the dead. 

Cheysothemis, Sister, what talk is this thou again 
boldest, having come forth to the entrance of the vestibule ; 
nor art willing to be taught by length of time not idly to 
gratify a fruitless rage ? Nevertheless thus far I know myself, 
that I am grieved at present circumstances ; so much so that 
were I to acquire the power, I would disclose what are my 
sentiments towards them. But now in miseries I think fit to 
voyage with lowered sail, and not fancy indeed I effect some- 
thing, yet work them no mischief Thus moreover would I have 

Tr.— Liddell, s. v. aTreifjii, well remarks that this is merely like ovTts 
Kal dirovTsg, and means "all the hopes I have." B. 
1 Thus Homer, II. ix. 

** Yet more — three daughters in his court are bred. 
And each well worthy of a royal bed; 
Laodice, and Iphigenia fair. 
And bright Chrysothemis with golden hair." 
The original has Iphianassa, which Pope appears to have little reason for 
changing to Iphigenia, who had been sacrificed at Aulis. Electra is 
usually considered the same with Laodice. Tb. — But they are one and 
the same person. Cf. Lucret. I. 85. B. 



338—364. ELECTRA. 



121 



thee also act : and yet the right is, not wherein I speak, but 
wherein thou judgest. But if I must needs live free, I must 
wholly obey my master. 

El. Shameful at least is it*, that thou being from the father 
whose born child thou art, forgettest him, but art regardful of 
thy mother. For all these admonitions to me are taught thee 
by her, and nought thou speakest of thyself. Else choose at 
least one of the tyo, either to be senseless, or in thy senses to 
have no remembrance of thy friends, since thou just now sayest, 
couldst thou but get strength to it, thou wouldst demonstrate thy 
abhorrence of these ; but v/ith me, who am in all things bent 
on vengeance for my father, thou not only dost not co-operate, 
but also dissuadest me in action. Hath not this cowardice to 
add to misery ? For instruct me, or learn of me, what advan- 
tage could accrue to me having desisted from these wailings. 
Do not I live ? but ill, I know, yet well enough for me. And 
I annoy them, so as to attach honour to the dead, if in the 
other '.vorld there be any pleasure : v/hile thou, our hater, 
hatest them in word, but in deed consortest with thy father's 
murderers. I then would never, not even if any one were 
purposing to bring me these thy gifts, wherein thou now wan- 
tonest, submit myself to these : no, to thee be the wealthy 
board set out, and plenty flow around thee : to me the only 
nourishment be not to pain myselP ; thine honour I covet not 

* This whole scene between the two sisters closely resembles the first 
between Antigone and Ismene; as well in the dispositions of the parties 
concerned, as in the subject of their discussion, the necessary respect to 
be paid to the dead. And when we see some of the finest productions of 
the Greeic language depending for their catastrophe on this point, -^re shall 
perhaps the less wonder that an idea so constantly implanted in ihc multi- 
tude as the connection of the dead with the living, should have taken root, 
even in so vigorous z mind as Aristotle's. 

2 See Brunck'o Note. Musgrave, who retains the common reading, 
thus remarks : " Gcholiastes et hoc in MSS. invenisse videtur, et prseterea 
XiTrai^, quod hunc sensum efficeret: Mihi satis non deficere alimenta. 
Sed omnino retinsndum XuttsTv. M"jhi instar pabula sit, non me dun- 
taxat, sed alios angers." Confer, v. 357. Hermann retains the common 
reading rovfi's fxr] Xvirsiv, which he renders mihi non dolorem creare 
{mihi hoc tantum est o pabulum) and understands Electra to allude to the 
remorse she must experience, if she paid an impious respect to iE.^isthus 
and her mother. Tr. — I have adopted Hermann's interpretation, as being 
best suited to the sense, although I am persuaded all is not right in the 
text. B. 



122 ELECTRA. 365—392. 

to obtain ; nor wouldst thou, at least wert thou wise : but now 
when thou hast in thy power to be called the child of a sire 
the noblest of all, be called thy mother's : for thus to most 
men wilt thou show thyself base, deserting thy murdered 
father and thy friends. 

Ch. Nought wrathfully, I pray you by the gods : since 
there is profit in the words of both, wouldst thou but learn to 
make use of hers, and she in turn of thine. 

Chr. I, ladies, am in some sort accustomed to her words : 
nor had I ever recalled it to her mind, had I not heard of a most 
grievous affliction coming upon her, which will withhold her 
from these protracted lamentations. 

El. Come, tell me then the hardship : for shouldst thou teU 
me aught greater than these present, I would no longer con- 
tradict thee. 

Chr. Nay, I will tell thee all, as much as I know. For 
they purpose, if thou wilt not desist from these wailings, to 
send thee thither, where never shalt thou behold the light of 
the sun ; but living in a confined vault, without this country, 
shalt thou chaunt thy woes. Wherefore bethink thee, and 
never hereafter when thou hast suffered blame me. For now 
it is thine to be wise in good time^. 

El. What, then, and have they resolved thus to treat me ? 

Chr. Most surely ; when in fact ^gisthus shall come 
home. 

El. Nay, then, may he quickly arrive for this at least. 

Chr. What words are these thou cursest thyself withal, 
unhappy ? 

El. That he may come, if he purposes to do aught of this. 

Chr. That thou mayest feel what suffering ? Where can 
thy senses be ? 

El. That I may escape as far as possible from you. 

Chr. But hast thou no regard to thy present life ? 

^ It has been before remarked, that this scene resembled one in Anti- 
gone : the coincidence of the two plays is here made still more striking 
by the punishment with which Electra is threatened. 
" If mournful cries and wailings before death 
Availed, there is not one, be well assured, 
That e'er would cease them. Instant take her hence, 
Inclose her in the rock's sepulchral cave, 
As I commanded ; leave her there alone. 
Either to die, or there to live entombed." Potter, Ant. p. 168. 



393—410. ELECTKA. 123 

El. Ay, a fine life is mine, \Yortli admiring ! 

Che. Nay, it might be, and thou kne^yest how to be wise. 

El. Teach me not to be a traitress to my friends. 

Chr. I teach thee not so, but to give way to those in power. 

El. Do thou thus flatter ; thou speakest not my wont. 

Che. Yet surely it is honourable at least not to have Mien 
from imprudence. 

El. I will fall, if needs I must, in avenging my father. 

Che. Our father, I am sure, grants indulgence in this^. 

El. These words it is the coward's part to praise. 

Che. But wilt not thou be persuaded and consent to me ? 

El. No truly. May I not yet be so void of understanding^. 

Che. Then will I too begone on my way, whither I was 
sent. 

El. But whither art thou wending ? to whom carriest thou 
these offerings ^ 

Che. My mother sends me to make Kbations at my father's 
tomb. 

El. How sayest thou? to the deadliest of her human 
enemies ? 

Che. Whom herself slew^ : for this wouldst thou say. 

El. At the persuasion of whom of her friends? Whose 
pleasure is this ? 

Che. From some nocturnal fright, to my thinking. 

^ Thus Ismene to her sister : — 

*' I then (of those beneath the earth revered 
Imploring pardon, since by force constrained) 
Will yield obedience to one potent lord. 
Attempts beyond our strength no pradence show." 

Potter, Ant. V. 69. 

2 Mrjxo), per Xtrornra for fi-qvore, since rru), as Buttmann has observed 
in his Greek Grammar, includes always a reference to past time. On this 
XiTorrjg see Porson ad Hec. 1260. 

3 Homer's account is different: vid. Od. IV. 529. 

AvTiKa d' Aiyi(T0oc do\i.7]v IppdcraaTO rsxvijv 

KpivdnevoQ Kara drjfiov WiKocri (purag dpicTovg, 

E7(T£ \6xov, tTipojQt 5" avwyei SaiTa ■jrsveaOai. 

AvTap 6 (3ri kuXewv 'A-yajjiSfivova, rroifieva Xawv. 

"Ittttoktiv Kai ox^CFCpiv, dtiKsa fiepurjpi^ojv. 

Tbv S" ovK eldor' oXidpov dvqyaye Kai KariTTS^ve 

Aenrviaaag. 
He further adds, that ^gisthus alone escaped, both his own and Aga- 
memnon's followers being slain. 



124 JlLECTRA. 411—442. 

El. gods of my fathers ! aid me even now. 

Chr. Hast thou any cheering hope respecting this terror ? 

El. Wouldst thou relate to me the vision, I then could tell 
thee. 

Chr. I know not, save a little, to tell thee. 
' El. Nay, tell me that. Many a trifling word, believe me, 
hath ere now both overthrown and established mortals. 

Chk. There was a report that she v/itnessed a second 
time the presence of my and thy father having returned to life, 
and then that he, ha-vdng taken the staff which once he bore, 
but now ^gisthus, fixed it in the earth : and from it sprouted 
up a vigorous scion, wherewith the whole land of Mycenae 
was overshadowed^. This I heard from one who related it, 
who was present while she reveals her dream to the sun*. 
But more than this I know not, save that she sends me in 
consequ.ence of this alarm. Now by our country's gods I im- 
plore thee, yield to me, nor fall by imprudence. For if thou 
shalt repulce me, hereafter thou wilt send for me in trouble^. 

El. But, my beloved, of all this that thou carriest in thine 
hands, attach nothing to the tomb : for it is not lawful for 
thee, nor pious, from that hated woman to place funeral gifts, 
or to carry expiatory libations to my father. But away with 
them secretly, eithei; to the winds, or to deep-sunk dust, where 
never any of them shall approach my father's place of rest : 
but when ■^he shall be dead, lie they in earth a deposit for her- 
self. FoT had she not been naturally the most daring of women, 
she in the first place had never at any time crowned these 
hateful libations for him, whom at least she slew. For consi- 
der, whether the entombed dead in thy opinion receives these 

^ Compere the Cboephorae of ^Escbylus, from which Sophocles has 
borrowed the idea of the dream. 

2 Under an idea that the god who dispelled the shades of night from 
the earth, was also capable of averting the evUs which had been threatened 
during that night, the ancients, having been alarmed by dreams, used to 
tell them to the sun ; and hence, says Franklin, Apollo was termed 'Atto- 
TpoiraXoQ, 

" Senserat ut pulsas tandem Medea tenebras, 
Rapta toiis, primi jubar ad placabile Phoebi 
Ibat." Val. Flacc. v. 330. 

' Hermann has here ably pointed out the skill of the poet in connecting 
Chrysothemis' warning to her sister with the account of Clytemnestra's 
alarm, who would be made doubly vindictive ia her purposes towards 
Electra by fear. 



443—476. ELECTKA. 125 

lionouTS in mood friendly to her : by whom perishing unho- 
noured, like a foe, he was mangled, and for a purification she 
wiped off her spots upon his head^ What, thinkest thou to 
bear these as atonements of the murder for her ? It cannot be. 
But leave these alone, and do thou having cut from the ring- 
lets on thine head the extreme hairs', and from me unhappy, 
a paltry gift indeed, but still such as I have, give him this 
squalid' [hair], and my girdle, not garnished with fineries. And 
falling dovm, beseech him from the earth to come a kindly aid 
to us against our enemies, and that his son Orestes with 
mightier hand may alive trample under foot his foes, that 
henceforth we may crown him with wealthier hands, than 
wherewith we now offer our gifts. I think indeed, I think 
that he hath some plan in sending to her these dreams of hor- 
rid aspect. But, however, my sister, perform this service for 
both thyself and me an aid, and for the most beloved of all 
mankind, now lying in Hades, our common sire. 

Ch. With piety the damsel speaks : but thou, my friend, 
if thou be wise, wilt do this. 

Chr. I will do it ; for that which is right has no good 
reason for one to strive with two, but to hasten its perform- 
ance. But, upon my attempting these deeds, let there be 
silence on your part, for the gods' sake, my friends, since if 
my mother shall hear of this, a bitter attempt, methinks, I 
shall yet hazard in this. 

Ch. If I be not born a foolish prophet, and wanting in wise 
judgment, there will come Justice the prophetic, bearing in 

^ Those among the ancients who had murdered any person, believed 
that the wiping their swords or any other weapon they had used on the 
head of the deceased, would prevent his avenging spirit from having power 
upon them. The cutting oflF and wearing under their arms a piece of flesh 
taken from the dead body was also thought a spell of like influence. 

2 " It hath been observed, that the ceremony of cutting off the hair, 
while it was obviously expressive of violent emotion, had a latent meaning 
couohed under it. As the hair was cut off from the head, never more to 
be united to it, so were the dead cut oft from the living, never more to 
return. This usage was not confined to the heathen world. It is taken 
notice of in Scripture: Ezekiel, describing a great lamentation, says, 
* They shall make themselves utterly bald for thee:' c. xxvii. 31." Notes 
to Trans. Min. Poet. Q. 191. 

^ " Defendi potest dXnrapij, modo ea vox significare putetur comam 
non accommodatam supplicationi, ut quae non satis compta atque nitide 
habita sit." Herrn. 



126 ELECTRA. 477—520. 

her hands righteous mastery ; she will pursue them, my 
child, at no distant period. Confidence rises within me, just 
now hearing the sweetly- breathing dreams*. For never is 
thy parent the king of Greeks forgetful at least, nor the 
ancient brazen two-edged axe, which slew him with most 
shameful insults. Also shall come the many-footed and 
many-handed Erinnys of brazen tread, that is concealed in 
dreadful ambush. For an incestuous unhallowed rivalry of 
blood-defiled nuptials has come upon those to whom it was 
unlawful. For these deeds, of a truth, it holds by me that 
no portent can ever, ever be come upon us without harm to 
either the doers or the accomplices. In good truth, there 
are no auguries to mortals in alarming dreams, nor in oracles, 
unless this apparition of the night shall anchor at last in 
good''. toilsome horsemanship of Pelops in old time, how 
woeful camest thou to this country ! For since the drowned 
Myrtilus' was sent to [his last] sleep, hurled headlong forth 
in dire insult from his all-golden car, no calamity of many 
troubles hath ever yet been wanting to this house. 

Clytemnestha. Let loose, it seems, again thou roamest : 
for ^gisthus is not here, vy^ho ever checked thee lest, being 
abroad, thou shouldst dishonour thy friends. But now, as he 
is absent, thou heedest not me at least. Nay, more, thou 
hast actually denounced me at large and to many, as that I 

1 That is, to the party of Agamemnon, in proportion as they came un- 
welcome and alarming to Clytemnestra. 

2 Musgrave considers the latter part of this chorus as out of place after 
the promise of a prosperous fortune to the house of Agamemnon. Yet as 
this could not be without a crime; since "sanguine quaerendi reditus ;" 
Hermann defends the transition made to the primal curse of the ill-starred 
royal family of Argos, 

3 Myrtilus, son of Mercury and Phaethusa, was charioteer to CEnomaus, 
king of Pisa, the father of Hippodamia, whose horses he rendered the most 
famous for their swiftness in all Greece. This it was which produced the 
confidence of CEnomaus in challenging his daughter's suitors to the chariot 
race, and had already been the destruction of thirteen chiefs, when Pelops 
bribed Myrtilus with a promise of sharing the favours of Hippodamia. 
Thus allured, he gave an old chariot to CEnomaus, which broke down in 
the course, and killed him. When, however, Myrtilus demanded the re- 
ward of his perfidy, Pelops threw him into the sea, thus exemplifying the 
words of Shakspeare's Henry : 

" They love not poison, that do poison need; 
Nor do I thee, though I did wish him dead. 
I hate the murderer, love him murdered." 



I 



521—553. ELECTRA. 127 

am impudent, and, contrary to justice, am the aggressor in 
insolence to thee and thine^. Yet have I no insolence : but 
bespeak thee evil by being so often slandered by thee. For 
that thy father, no other pretence hast thou constantly, fell 
by my hand. My hand : I know it well, I have no denial to 
make of this. For Justice took him not I only,' which thou 
oughtest to aid, wert thou haply in thy senses. Since this 
thy father, whom thou art ever wailing, alone of Greeks 
could bear*, to sacrifice to the gods thine own sister, though 
he suffered not from pain, when he begat her, equally with 
me that bare her. Enough, teach me now for whose sake 
he sacrificed her'. Wilt thou say, for the Greeks ? But 
they had no claim to kill my daughter at least But if forsooth 
then for his brother Menelaus he murdered what was mine, 
was he not bound to give me due satisfaction ? Had not he 
two children*, for whom to die was more reasonable than for 
her, they being of the father and mother for whose sake was 
the voyage? What, had Hades a desire of my children, 
rather than hers, to glut himself with them ? Or was affection 
for his children by me, neglected by then- abandoned father, 
yet remained in Menelaus? Were not these the acts of a 
witless sire, a villain in purpose ? I indeed think so, even 
though I speak contrary to thy sentiments. But the deceased 
at least would so say, could she resume her voice. I then am 
not disheartened at what I have done ; but if I seem to thee 
to judge amiss, do thou, preserving righteous judgment, re- 
proach those near of kin'. 

El. Thou wilt not now at least assert that I having com- 
menced with some offensive wbrds, have then heard this from 



^ Hermann places a comma after dpxit), not, lie says, because the read- 
ing adopted by Brunck and others is incorrect, (v. Matth. Gr. Gr. § 549,) 
but because Tre^a diKr^g dpxix) is a better sequel to the preceding Opaaela 

2 Cf. ^sch. Ag, 224. arXa S' ovv dvrrjQ yEvkaQai dvyarpbg. B. 

3 Herm. tov, xaptv t'ivoq Idv. av. " In return for what, in favour to 
whom." Thus in the Nubes, avri before tov is omitted, v . 22. 

^ This, says the scholiast, though it militates against Homer's account, 
is in union with Hesiod's : 

"H tsksO' 'EpfxioTfv dovpiKXeiT<^ MeveXdcp, 
'OTrXoTUTOV d' m ve NiKoorparov, opov 'Aprjog. 
5 i. e. thy father 



1-28: ELECTRA 554—587. 

thee : out, wouldst thou permit me, I would rightly argue 
at once in behalf of the deceased and my sister. 

Cly. Nay then I do permit ; but hadst thou always thus 
begun thine address to me, thou hadst not been offensive to 
listen to. 

El. Well*then, to thee I speak. Thou ownest thou killed 
my father. Than this what confession could be yet more 
base, whether in fine with justice or without? But I will 
prove to thee that thou didst not slay him with justice at 
least ; but persuasion from a villain, with whom thou now 
companiest, allured thee to it. Nay, ask the huntress Diana, 
in revenge for what those many winds detained them at Aulis : 
or I will tell thee, for from her it is not allowed thee to learn. 
My father once, as I hear, sporting in the groves of the god- 
dess, roused on foot a dappled, antlered stag, in whose 
slaughter exulting, he chanced to utter some [haughty] word^ 
And, thenceforth angered, the maiden daughter of Latona de- 
tained the Greeks, that m.j father as satisfaction for the beast 
should offer up his daughter. Thus was her sacrifice ; since 
no other release was there to the host, homewards or to Troy. 
On whose behalf, having been forcefully constrained, and 
having resisted much, he reluctantly sacrificed her, not for 
Menelaus' sake. If, however, for I will state even thy plea, 
wishing to profit him, he acted thus, ought he for this to 
have died by thy hands ? By what right ? Beware, lest in 
ordaining to mankind this rule, thou ordain thyself woe and 
repentance. For if we shall slay one for another, thou, mark 
me, shouldst die the first, at least hadst thou thy due. But 
look to it, lest thou set up a plea that does not exist. For 
tell me, an thou wilt, in requital of what thou happenest at 
present to be committing deeds the most infamous possible : 
thou that couchest with the assassin, with whom thou ersc 

1 The business of the ancient poets, and, till very lately, of our own, 
has constantly been to inculcate submission to the will of heaven, and 
respect for all things more immediately connected with it. In conformity 
to this proposed object, insolence to Minerva is stated by Calchas to be 
the cause of Ajax' madness ; and the wound inflicted on Venus by Diomed 
leads to his expulsion from his home by an unfaithful wife ; while the still 
more audacious, because the more personal, insults to the deities offered by 
Laomedon, lay the towers of Ilium, the work of more than human hands^ 
in the dust. Nor was the prince of lyric poets less reUgious than the 
tragedians: vid. 01. 9. 56. 



588—611. ELECTRA. 129 

didst destroy my father, and hast children by him* ; while 
thy former lawful progeny, from lawful lineage sprung, thou 
castest out. How could I approve of this ? What, wilt thou 
say that this too is vengeance thou takest for thy daughter^ ? 
Basely, even shouldst thou say so. For it is not honourable 
to marry with enemies, for the sake of a daughter. But it 
is not allowed even to advise thee, thee, that ventest thy 
whole talk of how I slander my mother. Nay, I at least 
account thee a mistress rather than a mother to us, I that 
live a wearisome life, ever treated with evil from thee and 
thy paramour ; while the other far away, having hardly es- 
caped thy hand, hapless Orestes, wears out a melancholy 
existence, whom thou hast often ^ accused me of bringing up 
as an avenger of thy pollution ; and this, had I had power, 
I had done, of this be well assured. For this at least pro- 
claim me to all, whether thou wilt as wicked, or abusive, or 
full of impudence. For if I am naturally an adept in these 
practices, I am almost no disgrace whatever to thy nature. 

Ch. I see her breathing rage: but whether or no it exist 
with justice*, of this I see no further thought. 

Xoidoprjcai 
Beovq, txQpa (ro(pia' Kal 
TO Kavxa.(79ai Trapa Kaipbv 
MaviuLcriv inroKpiKSi. 
Hence we see that it wanted but little supernatural influence to drive Ajax 
to the frenzy with which he was afterwards possessed. 

^ Pausanias mentions Erigone, a daughter of iEgisthus, of whom 
Tzetzes ad Lycoph, 1374, plainly calls Clytemnestra the mother. Herm. 
2 Euripides strengthens this plea by the addition of another, which the 
ladies will think more forcible, viz. that Agamemnon kept another woman, 
and even brought her into the house with his wife. This fact is thus 
alluded to by Ovid : — 

" Dum fuit Atrides una contentus, et ilia 

Casta fuit: vitio est improba facta viri." Franklin, 
-^schylus also mentions the arrival of Cassandra at Argos, and her pro- 
phecies of her own and Agamemnon's fate. Indeed the Grecian chiefs in 
general appear to have so little observed conjugal fidelity, that their wives' 
treachery hardly need be referred to the wrath of Venus, or any other 
deity. Ulysses alone (his loves with the goddesses must be excused on 
the score of influence beyond human power to counteract) appears to have 
had a just sense (vid. Od. 1. 433.) of decorum in this particular, and 
accordingly his wife continues faithful to him throughout. 

2 Hermann corrects the scholiast's interpretation thus : " but whether 
Electra justly harbours anger," ^vveari, scil. rep fiivei. 

K 



130 ELECTRA. 612—657. 

Cly. Why, what thought should I have about her at least, 
who in such terms hath insulted her mother, and that too at 
such an age^^ What, does she not seem to thee likely to 
proceed to any crime without shame? 

El. Be now well assm-ed that I feel shame at all this, even 
though I seem not to thee so to do : and I am conscious that 
I act as disbecomes both my age and myself — but alas ! for 
thy enmity and thy crimes compel me to act thus perforce, 
since by the base are base deeds taught. 

Cly. O shameless creature! doubtless I, and my words, 
and my deeds cause thee to speak a great deal too much. 

El. Thou speakest them, not I : for thou doest the deed, 
and deeds find themselves words. 

Cly. But never, no, by queen Diana', shalt thou go un- 
punished for this insolence, when iEgisthus shall return^. 

El. Seest thou? thou art hurried off into rage, though 
having given me leave to say whatever I might wish ; nor 
knovvest how to listen. 

Cly. Wilt thou not then suffer me even to sacrifice amid 
sounds of good omen*, now that I have allowed thee at least 
to say thy all? 

El. I suffer, I bid thee, sacrifice; nor blame my lips, since 
I will speak no further. 

Cly. Then do thou, that art here with me, take up the 
offerings of various fruits, that to this king I may ofi'er up 
yows for deliverance from the terrors which now I feel. Now 

^ It is hard to say whether this is meant as a reproach to Electra's 
youth or maturer age. The context seems to intimate the former, but the 
probable age of Orestes the latter. 

^ Electra having in a former passage declared that her mother, as a 
murderess and adulteress, was unfit to inquire aught of the goddess of 
chastity, by this oath Clytemnestra means to contradict her. 

^ Take ouk akv^ng here as equivalent to ovk ei^eig aXv^iv, and under- 
stand akv'iiQ, jiot in a passive but an active sense ; not "■ efifugium ejus 
qui elFugitur," but efFugium ejus qui efFugit." Herm. 

^ This is well known to have been a point of great importance among 
the Greeks. Ulysses, relating the cause of Philoctetes' expulsion from 
the army, says, 

OT OVTS XoifirJQ rifuv, ovre Ov^drojv 
Traprjv tKrjXoig TrpoaOiyeiv, dW dypiaiQ 
Kareix dd ttclv aTparoTrtdov dvatprjfAiaig. Phil. v. 8. 
Hermann, however, takes, tixprjiiov j3orjg to mean merely silence, as in 
the CEdipus Coloneus, v. 132. 



637— G72. ELECTRA. 131 

mayest thou hear, Apollo our protector, my concealed address. 
For my speech is not before friends, nor suits it to unfold all 
to light, while she is close beside me, lest with malice and 
babbling clamour she circulate an idle tale throughout the 
town^ But hear me thus, for thus will I address thee. The 
apparitions of a twofold dream that I have this night beheld'*, 
these grant me accomplished, O Lycsean king, if propitious 
to me they have appeared, but if hostile, let them recoil on 
my foes. And if any by treachery are plotting to expel me 
from my present good fortune, permit it not; but grant that 
I, ever living a life thus unharmed, may sway the Atridse's 
palace and this sceptre in happy hour consorting with those 
of my friends, with whom I now consort, and as many of my 
children, as from whom no ill will attaches to me, nor bitter 
annoyance. This, O Lycsean Apollo, favourably hearing, 
grant to all of us, even as we ask : but all the rest, though I 
be silent, I deem thou knowest, as being a god^. For it is 
meet that the race of Jove sees all things, 

Att. Stranger females, how might I surely know if this be 
the palace of the king ^gisthus? 

Ch. This is, O stranger. Thyself hast rightly conjectured. 

Att. And am I right in guessing also that this is his wife ? 
For she is dignified as a sovereign to look on 

Ch. Most certainly of all. This is she, here before thee. 

Att. Hail, O queen. I come bringing to thee pleasant 
tidings, and to ^gisthus alike, from a friend. 

Cly. I accept the uttered omen. But first of all I wish to 
know of tliee, who of mankind despatched thee. 

Att. Phanoteus the Phocian: forwarding an important 
matter. 

Ci>Y. Of what kind, stranger ? say; for being from a friend, 
I am well assured thou wilt speak friendly words. 

^ Thus Virgii: — *' Hinc spargere voces 

In vulgum ambiguas." ^Eneid IT. 
2 " Aio-ffwi', dvplicium id est amhiguorum. Sic Lucianus in Alexandre, 
p. 218. diTTOvg Tivag /cat dfi(pi(3oXov(: Kal Xo^ovg X|0^?crjLtot'C (Tvyyd(pu)v." 
Brunck. It may, hor-ever, be an allusion to the vision which ^schylus 
has related. 

^ Similarly the Chorus in CEdipus Tyrannus: — 

'A\X' 6 fiev ovv 7jtvQ, o r 'AttoXXwi/ 
SvvsTOJj Krai rd j3pOTu>v 

^ISoTtg. V. 498. 

K 2 



182 ELECTRA. 673—697. 

Att. Orestes is dead: I speak compressing it in brief. 

El. Unhappy me ! this day am I midone. 

Cly. What sayest thou, what sayest thou, stranger ? heed 
not her. 

Att. Now, as before, I declare that Orestes is dead. 

El. Wretched I am lost. I am no longer aught. 

Cly. Look thou to thine own affairs ; but do thou, stranger 
tell me the truth ; in what way perishes he ? 

Att. And for this I was sent, and I will tell the whole. 
For he having come to the glorious pageant of games of 
Greece\ for the sake of Delphian prizes, when he heard the 
loud announcements of the herald proclaiming previously the 
race, the decision of which comes first, entered [the Hsts] 
illustrious, the admiration of all there present. And having 
made the goals of the course even with the starting-place'^, he 
went forth, carrying the all-honoured prize of victory. And 
that I may tell thee sparingly amid abundance, I have not 
known the deeds and might of a man like him. But know 
at once^; of as many double courses as the umpires pro- 
claimed the five prizes which are customary, of these obtaining 
all the meeds of victory he w^as hailed happy, announced as 
an Argive, by name Orestes, son of Agamemnon, that once 
assembled the famous armament of Greece. And such were 
these events. But when any god shall afflict him, not even 



1 The Pythian games were instituted in honour of Apollo's victory over 
the serpent Python, and are thought to have been at first confined to a 
contest of musical and poetic skill in hymning the praises of the victor 
god. The SiavXog here mentioned was when the competitors in the foot 
race doubled the goal, and returned to the starting-place. The irkvraQXov 
is usually supposed to be comprised in the celebrated verse — 

"AXfia, TTodujKeiijv, dicjKOv, aKovra, ttciXtjv. 
The prizes were sacred apples, to which some add wreaths of laurel, or, 
according to Ovid, of beech. As Pausanias has stated, x. 7. '.i. that most 
of the Pythian rules were adopted from the Olympic games, we find 
** the order of the course," ciavXog, first here. 

2 See Brunck's note. Hermann's better taste has rejected so epigram- 
matic a prr.ttiness as that of Antipater; and he justly observes, that So- 
phocles, in saying that Orestes made his starting-place his goal, exactly 
describes the ciavXog. 

3 Hermann has a comma between lg6fiu)v and ciavXwv, and considers 
what follows as equivalent to TrevrdOXujv u vofii'Ctrat. Tr. — Dindorf 
has rightly followed Porson. B. 



698—720. ELECTRA. 133 

the strong man could escape. For he on a following day^ 
when at sun-rise there w^as a swift contest of horsemanship, 
came in with many a charioteer. One was an Achaean, one 
from Sparta, two were Libyans drivers of yoked chariots; 
and he among them the fifth, guiding Thessalian steeds, the 
sixth from ^Etolia with chestnut fillies, the seventh a ^lagne- 
sian, the eighth, with white horses, an ^nian by race, the 
ninth from the god-erected Athens, the other a Boeotian, 
filling up the tale of ten chariots^. But having taken their 
stand where the appointed umpires had thrown for them with 
lots, and ranged their chariots, at the sound of the brazen 
trumpet they started, and all at once in concert cheering on 
theii' horses shook the reins in theii' hands : the whole com'se 
within was filled with the noise of rattling chariots^: the dust 
was tossed on high: while all together in confusion were 
sparing nought of the lash, that each might get beyond the 
other's M-heels*, and snortings of their steeds, for the breath- 
ings of their horses were at once falling upon and covering 
with foam theii' backs and the circles of their wheels. But 
he keeping under the very last column^, continually was 

* Translators and commentators agree in considering aXXor here as 
synonymous with hvTspog; (the Latins have the same idiom, as in 
Cicero; umts, alter, tertius ;) but as it is not certain how long the Pythian 
games lasted, this appears a gratuitous assumption. Certainly Poppo, in 

his note on Tliucyd. III. 59, denies the converse: "^provocat 

enim ad Find. Olj'mp. I. 69, ubi postquam Pelops dictus est a Neptune 
raptus atque in Jovis domum traductus esse, subjicitrir : 

''Evda cevreoii) xpovtp 
''RXOe Kal Tavvi.i7]Cr]g. 
Quo in loco quum scholiastse multas turbas movissent, Ganymedem Pelope 
priorem fuisse dicentes, Heynius cevrkpiij xpov<>j positum esse voluit pro 
aXX(i) xpo^f/J. quod satis refutavit Boeckius, quern vide in Notis Criticis, 
p. 346. AtvTioog enim nonnisi ibi usurpari potest, ubi de duobus sermo 
est, ideoque non cum aWog sed cum 'irspog cohaeret ; a quo tamen ita 
difFert, ut 'inpog unum ex duobus significet sine uUa vel temporis vel 
ordinis sive dignitatis notatione, unde unus ille et prior et posterior esse 
potest, CivTspog autem nonnisi de posteriore plerumque dicatur:" p. 63. 
Tr. — See Liddell and Scott, s. v. dWog, no. 7. B. 

- Hence we learn the number allowed to run at the Pythian games at 
one time. 

2 Qiiadrijuyes currtis. Brunck. " The harnessed car." Potter. ** Zsu- 
yuiTuJ}' — Hesychius, Ivywcrw — <\£t(7w." Musgrave. 

■* Xvoai are properly the sockets into which the axletrees are put. 

* icTXarq aTijXr} is the last in order of several columns or obelisks 



134 ELECTRA. 721—749. 

wlieeling in his axle's nave?, and giving rein to the right steed* 
held in the near horse. And hitherto all the chariots conti- 
nued upright; but then the hard-mouthed steeds of the -<JEnian 
run away with him, and in turning at the completion of the 
sixth, and now on the seventh course^, they dash their fronts 
on the Barcaean car^. And thenceforth, from a single mishap, 
one was crushing and tumbling on another, and the whole 
Crissaean plain was being filled with the wrecks of shattered 
chariots. But the skilful charioteer from Athens, aware of 
this, drives by outside them, and slackens speed, ha\TLng suf- 
fered to pass him the tossing tide of horses confounded in the 
centre. But Orestes was driving the hindmost^ indeed, 
but keeping back his coursers, placing his trust in the issue. 
But the other when he sees him left alone*, having cracked in 
the ears of his swift mares the shrill sound of his whip, pur- 
sues him ; and having brought their poles in line they were 
driving, now one, and then the other, pushing forward the 
heads of their chariot horses. And all the other courses in 
safety the hapless youth drove erect in his car upright; but 
then, slackening the left rein of his wheeling horse, he una- 
wares strikes the pillar's edge^, and breaks the middle axle- 
nave, is tumbled from his chariot, and entangled in his reins, 
while on his falling to the ground his steeds were dispersed 
over the middle of the course. But the assembly, when it 

erected ia the hippodrome, and does not, as some have supposed, allude 
to the last turn round the goal. See Hermann's dissertation on the words 
used by the Greeks to express the movements of horses, Beckii Comm. 
Soc. Phil. vol. i. part i. p. 49, and Bulenger de Circo Rom. c. 29, in 
Grsevius, Thesaur. Ant. Rom. t. 9. 

^ Hermann understands 'iiriroL here, agreeing with the masculine rt- 

XoVVTtQ. 

2 This is an anachronism. V. Herod, iv. 160. 

3 Monk translates this, " Now Orestes drove the last to be sure, but 
keeping his horses back, as he placed his confidence in the end of the 
race." 

^ " The scholiasts do not state whom they understand to be meant by 
o ^6 and viv respectively. Later interpreters refer the former to Orestes, 
the latter to the Athenian : but in that case one would have expected 
iKuvov rather than viv, which last must apply to the principeJ subject of 
discourse; and that subject is Orestes." Herm. 

^ As his other instructions agree with the plan pursued by Orestes, so 
this is the accident against which Nestor particularly warns Antilochus, 
II. xxiii. V. 334. 



750—787 ELECTRA. 135 

perceives him tlirown out of his seat, shrieked aloud over the 
youth, that, after having done such deeds, he meets with such 
a disaster, whirled along on the ground, and then again toss- 
ing up his limbs to heaven : until the charioteers having with 
difficulty stopped the horses' speed, released him, all bloody, 
so that none of his Mends by looking on him could have re- 
cognized his hapless person. And having forthwith burnt 
him on the pyre, in a little brazen urn a huge body of melan- 
choly ashes^ are appointed men of Phocis bringing, that he 
may inherit a tomb in his father's land. Such, look you, are 
these tidings, as in story told'^, piteous, but to us eye-wit- 
nesses that saw it, the greatest of all misfortunes that I ever 
beheld. 

Ch. Alas! alas! It seems then the whole race of our for- 
mer lords from its very roots has perished. 

Cly. O Jove, whether shall I call these news fortunate? or 
terrible, yet gainful? yet 'tis a painful case, if by mine own 
ills I save my life. 

Att. But why, lady, art thou so dispirited at my present 
words? 

Cly. 'Tis a dreadful thing to be a mother; for not even to 
the ill-treated does hatred of those she has borne ^attach. 
Att. It seems then we are come in vain. 
Cly. No, believe me, not in vain at least : for how couldst 
thgu tell me in vain ? if thou camest possessing sure proofs 
of his death, who born of my life, an alien from my breast 
and nurture, estranged himself in exile, and since he quitted 
this land never beheld me, but laying to my charge his father's 
murder, was ever threatening to perform dreadful deeds, so 
that neither by night nor by day did sweet sleep overshadow 
me ; but progressing time ever led me on as doomed to die. 
Now, however (for on this day am I released from alarm at 
her hands and his, since she the greater pest was living with 
me, ever drinking up my pure life's blood,) now haply shall 
we pass our days in quiet, as far as relates to her threats^. 

^ Thus Hermann, rejecting both Brunck's idea of antiptosis and 
Schaefer's constmction of xaXh-vp (tttoSov. 

■^ Similarly the messenger in QEdipus Tyrannus, v. 1237. 
TU)v ce 7rpa%0£i^ra»v to. fikv 
aXyiGT a-KtaTiV t) yap 6\puj ov irapa. 
3 " Male Brunckius d' post vov delevit, quod repeti post parenthesin 
notavi ad Vigerum, p. 847. Compare ^sch. Choeph. G21 — 629." 
Herm. 



136 ELECTRA. 788 — 818. 

El. Ah me, unhappy ! For now 'tis mine to wail, Orestes, 
thy misfortune, that thus conditioned thou art insulted by 
this thy mother : is this well ? 

Cly. Not with thee, be sure ; but he, as he is, is well. 
' El. Hear, avenging spirit of the lately dead\ 

Cly. It hath heard whom it ought, and well fulfilled the 
prayer. 

El. Be insolent ; for now thy lot is prosperity. 

Cly. So shall not Orestes and thou repress it. 

El. We have been put down ourselves, on fear that we 
shall put thee down. 

Cly. Thou wouldst become deserving of many things, 
stranger, hadst thou checked her babbling clamour^. 

Att. I would be gone then, if this be well. 

Cly. By no means ; since thou wouldst be about to act in 
a manner worthy neither me nor the friend that sent thee. 
But go ye within, and leave her to lament from without both 
her own and her friend's calamities. 

El. And does the wretched woman seem to you, as 
grieving and in pain, bitterly to weep and wail over her son 
thus perished? No, in derision is she gone. O unhappy 
me ! Dearest Orestes, how by thy death hast thou undone 
me ! for thou art gone, and hast torn from my heart the only 
hopes that yet remained to me, that thou wouldst one day 
come a living avenger of my father and of me ill-fated. But 
now whither must I go ? for I am lonely, bereft of both thee 
and my father. Now must I again be a slave to those among 
men most hateful to me, the murderers of my sire. And is 
this well with me ? But no, never again hereafter will I be 
their co-mate^, but at this gate having throwTi myself along, 

1 Nemesis, daughter of Nox, and by some supposed to be the same with 
Leda, was intrusted with tlie care of avenging all manner ot impietieSj but 
especially those committed against the dead. It was in this latter charac- 
ter that Adrastus, in his second expedition to Thebes, to avenge the refusal 
of burial to his son-in-law Polynices, erected a temple to her. The Greeks 
also celebrated a feast in her honour, called Nemesia. 

2 Hermann refers to Matth. Gr. Gr. § 524. for the construction of this 
passage, defending the common reading against Monk's remarks in Mus. 
Grit. 

2 Brunck's reading tfftrofi is an elision unknown to the tragic dialogue: 
KvvoiKOQ taoixai may be read, according to Hermann, with an hiatus: he 
himself reads ii<r£i/i'; Monk and others, tcrofiai ^vvoiKog. " Sed transpO' 



819—844. ELECTRA. 137 

friendless will I wither away life. ^\Tierefore, let any of 
those within slay me, if he be offended ; since 'tis pleasure if 
I die, pain if I live ; and for life I have no wish. 

Ch. Where can be the thunderbolts of JoveS or where the 
beaming sun, if looking on these things they silently hide^ ? 

El. 0! O! alas! alas! 

Ch. My child, why weepest thou? 

El. Alas! 

Ch. Sob not thus violently. 

El. Thou wdit kill me. 

Ch. How? 

El. If thou shalt suggest a hope for those who have mani- 
festly sunk into the grave, thou wilt the rather trample on me 
wasting away. 

Ch. I did it, for that I know that royal Amphiaraus was 
ensnared by stealth in the golden-wreathed fetters of a 
woman^. and now beneath the earth 

El. Oh! alas! alas! 

Ch. Immortal he reigns. 

El. Alas! 

Ch. Alas indeed ! for she deathful — 

El. Was over- mastered ? 

nendi ratio, hodie est instar acuti cultri in manibus puerortim." Herm. 
Tr. — But Dindorf retains iaaon'. B. 

^ "These four lines must be restored to the Chorus, whose claim to 
them is irrefragable. They insinuate a ground of hope for Electra, to 
which she alludes in v. 833. The exclamations in v. 827 are Electra's." 
Mus. Crit. i. 204. 

- This word is with peculiar fitness applied to the sun: 
Aftj-'ou yap Qtov aids (Soeg kol i<pia fiijXa, 
'HeXiov, OQ -KavT itpopq. Kai iravr' tTraKovei. 

Od. xii. 322. 

^ The story of Amphiaraus bears a resemblance to that of Agamemnon. 
He was son of Oicleus, and the greatest soothsayer of his time. Foreseeing 
the fatal issue of the Theban war, he would have declined assisting Poly- 
nices, and hid himself for some time, but was betrayed by his wife Eri- 
phyle, whom Polynices had bribed with a golden necklace, and who, like 
Clytemnestra, fell by her son's hand. Although Homer has assigned the 
chief place among deceased prophets to Tiresias, it is certain thai high 
honours were paid to Amphiaraus after death, at Oropus in Attica, where 
he had a temple. Tr. — So dvaE is applied to Tiresias in CEd. Tyr. 304. 
On Amphiaraus cf. Pindar 01. VI. 21. Apollodor. III. 6, 2. His oracle 
is mentioned by Cicero de Div. I., 40. Minutius Felix, Oct. § 26. 
AthenagoraSj legat. p. 139. B. 



1 38 ELECTRA. 845—880. 

Ch. Yes. 

El. I know it, I know it ; for a careful friend arose to 
him in sorrow ; but to me there is no longer any, for he who 
yet existed, is torn away and gone. 

Ch. Wretched, thou hast a wretched fate. 

El. I too am conscious, too conscious, of this, by a life which 
every month sweeps in a mass of many things grievous and 
detestable^ 

Ch. We know all that thou bewailest. 

El. No more, no more now mislead me, where no more' — 

Ch. What sayest thou } 

El. Are present the aids of hopes of kindred blood and 
high ancestr^'^. 

Ch. Death is natural to all mankind. 

El. What, and in the rivalry of swift steeds thus to be 
entangled in the reins, like him wretched ? 

Ch. The misfortune is inconceivable. 

El. How should it not ? if in a foreign land without my 
hands 



Ch. O heavens ! 

El. He was inurned, having met with neither sepulture 
nor dirge from us. 

Chr. With joy, my best beloved, I speed me hither*, dis- 
missing decorum, to hasten with alacrity ; for I bring both 
joys and respite from the ills which before now thou didst 
cherish and sigh over. 

El. But hence couldst thou discover a consolation of my 
troubles, a remedy whereof it is impossible to find ? 

Chr. Our Orestes is at hand, be sure of this, hearing it 
of me, as certainly as thou lookest on me. 

El. What ! art thou frantic, wretch, and mockest thine 
own woes and mine ? 

^ If Hermann's reading, aiwviy be here adopted for a^fwv, (as 7ra/>iju?7V(/j 
iravavpTiji cannot well stand for substantives, if without the article,) the 
reader may compare Hermann's explanation, TrdvavproQ Tract /xjjcti, with 
Thucyd. 2. 44. evevdaifiovfjaaL re koI ivrtkivrriaaL tov /3i'ov. 

2 Johnson, and after him Brunck, unaccountably translates the word 
'srapayayyQ by soleris, to which Musgrave with reason objects, and renders 
it demulceas verbis, decipias. 

2 dpioyai Hermann, from the scholiast. 

^ Much of the beauty of this scene is lost to us in the closet ; on tliS 
atage its effect must have been wonderful. . 



881—907. ELECTRA. 139 

Chr. No, by my father's hearth, I speak not this in insult, 
but that he is at hand to us. 

El. Ah me ! unhappy ! and from whom of men hearing 
this tale, believest thou this fondly ? 

Chr, From myself and none else, having seen sure proofs, 
I believe this tale. 

El. AVhat proof having beheld, unhappy girl ! looking on 
what, say, art thou heated with this fever of the soul past 
cure^ ? 

Chr. Now, by the gods, listen, that having learnt of me, 
thou mayest call me henceforth either sensible or senseless. 

El. Nay then, do thou say on, if thou in speaking hast any 
pleasure. 

Chr. Well then, I tell thee all that I behold. For when 
I came to my father's ancient tomb, I see from the top of the 
mound fresh-running streams of milk, and my sire's grave 
garlanded all around with every flower that grows. But 
having seen this I began to feel wonder, and gaze around, 
lest haply any mortal be stealing close upon me. But when 
I saw the whole spot tranquil, I crept nearer the tomb, and 
at the edge of the pile I discern a fresh cropped lock of hair^. 
And the instant I hapless discovered it, an accustomed fancy 
strikes upon my soul, that I was looking on this a memorial of 
Orestes, the dearest of mankind, and raising it in my hands, 
I speak not words of ill omen, but for joy have mine eyes 
filled instantly with tears'. And now too equally as then I 

1 The same epithet is applied to the madness of Ajax : — 

" 'Eyw (7^' direipyu), dvacpSpovg Itt' 6fifia(n 
Tvit)jj.ag j3a\ov(Ta, Trjg avr}Kk(jTOv xapae,^^ v. 51. 

2 Schaefer conjectured irvpa. Retain the genitive and join it with opw, 
a summo tumulo conspicio cincinmim, according to tlie Greek fashion of 
measurement^ not from the spectator to the object seen, but the reverse. 
See also v. 882. Herm. 

^ Brunck translates this, vocem guidem compressi, evidently considering 
00 dvarprj/jno as equivalent to eu^rj/iw in its second sense. But Potter 
•with greater reason gives it thus: — 

" And from mine eyes gushed tears : account not these 
Omens of ill, for they were tears of joy." 
Chrysothemis, with the natural anxiety of a Greek bringing good tidings, 
explains away a circumstance which might change their nature, even before 
she states what that circumstance was. But that it was considered in 
general of ill omen, we learn from Homer, Od. B. XX. Tr. — Apuleius 
Met. p. 107, ed. Elm. " ut lacrymee saepicule de gaudio prodeunt, ita et 
in illo nimio pavore risum nequivi continere." B, 



140 ELECTRA, 908—942. 

am sure that this ornament could come from none but him. 
For to whom is this a natural duty, save at least to thee and 
me ? And I did it not, this I well know, nor again didst 
thou. For how shouldst thou, to whom at least it is not per- 
mitted with impunity to quit this roof even to [worship] the 
gods ? But of my mother too neither is the spirit wont to 
act thus, nor had she done it unobserved : no, these marks of 
respect are from Orestes. Come, my dear sister, take courage. 
To the same persons the selfsame genius is not always 
present. But ours was ere now detestable, yet haply the 
present day will be the confirmation of many good things. 

El. Alas ! how do I long since pity thee for thine in- 
fatuation ! 

Chr. But what is it ? do I not speak this to thy delight ? 

El. Thou knowest neither whither on earth nor whither in 
thought thou art hurried. 

Chr. But how know I not that at least, which I saw 
plainly ? 

El. He is dead, miserable woman ; and all protection to 
thee from him is vanished ; look not to him at least. 

Chr. Unhappy me ! from whom of men hast thou heard 
this? 

El. From one who was near at hand when he perished. 

Chr. And where is this man ? amazement comes over me. 

El. Within, acceptable, and not displeasing to my mother. 

Chr. Unhappy me ! and from whom among men could 
have been the many funeral offerings at my father's tomb ? 

El. I am most led to believe that some one placed them 
there as memorials of the deceased Orestes. 

Chr. Ah ill-fortuned ! while with joy I bringing such a 
tale was hastening, not knowing, I am sure, in what woe we 
were plunged^ I But now, when I have come, I find the 
previously existing e^dls, and fresh ones also. 

El. Thus it is with thee ; but if thou wilt be persuaded 
by me, thou shalt lighten the weight of thy present affliction. 

Chr. What, shall I ever raise the dead? 

El. That at least is not what I said, for I was not bom so 
senseless. 

Chr. What then dost thou require, to w^jaich I can pledge 
myself ? 

1 "Apa est erffo, quod hie in media oratione cum dolore additum. Herm. 
ad Aj. 1005. 



943—974. ELECTRA. 141 

El. That thou take heart to execute what I shall advise. 

Chr. Nay, if there be any profit in it at least, I will not 
reject it from me. 

El. Observe, without trouble, be sure, nothing is suc- 
cessful. 

Chr. I do observe. I will lend aid in all whereunto I 
have strength. 

El. Hear then now, in what way I have planned to effect 
it. Thou too art surely aware that present countenance of 
fi'iends there is none to us, but Hades has taken and deprived 
us of them, and we are left alone^. I at least, while I heard 
that my brother was flourishing in life, maintained hopes, that 
he would one day come as avenger of my father's murder'^ ; 
but now, since he is no more, I therefore tm-n to thee, that 
with me thy sister thou wilt not be reluctant to slay the per- 
petrator of our father's murder, ^gisthus. For I must con- 
ceal nought from thee any longer. Since how long wilt thou 
continue slothful ? with a view to what further rational hope ? 
who hast cause to sigh being deprived of the possessing of 
thy sire's wealth, and cause to sori'ow, so long a time growing 
old unwedded and unbetrothed. And do not any longer hope 
that you will ever obtain these things. For ^gisthus is not 
so imprudent a man, as ever to suffer thy progeny or mine 
to spring up, an e%ddent annoyance to himself^. But if thou 
be induced by my counsels, first thou wilt reap the praise of 
piety from thy father in the grave, and also from thy brother, 
and then as thou wast born, thou wilt be called hereafter 
free, and wilt gain thyself a worthy marriage. For every 
one is wont to have regard to what is virtuous. But in the re- 
port at least seest thou not what high renoA^Ti thou wilt attach 
to thyself and to me by being persuaded by me ? For who 

^ Hermann here defends the first person dual against Elmsley and 
Monk: it is found once only in Homer, 11. ■*". 485, where Elmsley pro- 
posed to read Trtpi^w/xecr^', once besides this place in Sophocles, at Phil. 
1079, where also Hermann has retained the dual: — 

" Observa, ^gistho, non etiam matri, necem parare Electram." H. 

- IIpaKTwp is properly the exactor of retribution. 

^ Thuo. HI. 40. MttXtora de ol ^if %vv Trpotpdasi Tivd KaKuig iroi- 
ovvTtQ tTri^kp\ovTaL Kal ^wWvvTai, rbv k'ivcvvov vipop^fxevoi tov vtto- 
\tnTonkvov tx^pov. " Non putem respexisse Sophoclem versuni parse- 
miacum vrfrnoQ oq Trar'fpa KTdvac Tzai^aq KaTaXincoi, ut Scbaefero vide- 
batur in Melet. Crit. p. 123." Herm. 



142 ELECTRA. 975—1004. 

of townsmen or strangers beholding us will not welcome us 
with applauses such as these ? "Behold, friends, these two 
sisters, that saved their father's house, that of their lives 
unsparing, took the lead in slaying their foes who once were 
high in station ; these ought we to love, these ought all to 
venerate, these all to honour, both at the festivals and in the 
states' popular assemblies, in reward of their courage\" 
Thus, be sure, will every man proclaim of us, that glory shall 
fail us not, alive or dead. But, my beloved, be persuaded, 
join in toiling for thy father's sake, in labouring for thy 
brother's, respite me from misery, respite thyself, being 
assured of this, that " basely to live is base for the nobly 
bom." 

Ch. In words like these precaution is a help both to the 
speaker and hearer. 

Chr. Yet before she spake, ladies, had she chanced to be 
other than perverse of thought, she had preserved that caution, 
even as she doth not preserve it. For whither j)ossibly tur- 
ning thine eyes, art thou at once arming thyself with such 
daring, and callest on me to support thee ? Seest thou not ? 
thou wert born a woman, and no man, and art in power less 
strong than thine opponents. But to them is destiny daily 
propitious, while to us it is retrograde, and comes to nought'^. 
Who then, plotting to ensnare such a man, shall be let off 
unpained by calamity? Beware lest faring badly we work 
om-selves weightier evils, if any one shall hear these words. 

^ " Notwithstanding the decent reservedness of female manners in an- 
cient Greece, the virgins were not only allowed to be present at certain 
religious solemnities, but their attendance was necessary: they formed a 
distinguished part in the sacred processions, and were led by some virgin 
of the highest rank." Potter. — In Spain, where the strictness of female 
confinement outdoes even that of ancient Greece, the same licence is 
allowed on the festivals of particular saints. 

^ The daemon, which in Socrates supplied the office of common sense, 
was considered by the ancients as a being of an intermediate order between 
God and man ; being synonymous with the genii, (perhaps originally with 
the giants,) and therefore sprung from earth (yjj) previously to the creation 
of man ; they were supposed to control by their influence the fortunes of 
the human race, each of which had his particular guardian power, who 
knew (Aar][.i(jjv) all his actions, and fruthered or prevented his purposes. 
From this probably was modified the Rosicrucian system. Tr. — These 
remarks are misapplied. No allusion to guardian genii is intended, and 
dalaojv, as almost everywhere in the Tragedians, means fortune. B. 



1005—1033. Plectra. 143 

For it neither profits nor assists us anght, ha^-in": gained an 
honourable fame to perish with infamy ; for 'tis not death that 
is most hateful, but when one longing to die then have not 
power to obtain it. But I conjure thee, ere we perish utterly 
in complete destruction, and desolate our race, repress thy 
passion. And what has been said I will preserve for thee, 
un divulged as ineffectual ; but do thou thyself at least after 
so long a time take thought, since thou hast no power, to sub- 
mit to thy superiors'. 

Ch. Be persuaded. There exists not to man a profit more 
desirable to gain than forethought and wisdom of mind. 

El. Thou hast said nothing unlooked for ; nay, I well knew 
thou wouldst reject what I proposed. But by me alone and 
single-handed must this deed be done ; for positively I will 
not leave it unassayed at least. 

Chr. Alas ! would thou had been such in spirit, when our 
father fell ; for thou wouldst have accomplished all. 

El. Nay I was naturally at least such, but at that time of 
weaker judgment. 

Chr. Practise to continue such in mind throughout life. 

El. As not purposing to co-operate with me thou advisest 
thus. 

Chr. Yes, for it is likely that one who takes in hand to 
work ill, will fare ill. 

El. I envy thee thy prudence, but abbor thy cowardice. 

Chr. I fain must hear you, even when thou shalt commend 
me*. 

El. But think not fi-om me at least thou shalt ever meet 
with this. 

Chr. Nay, future time is long enough to decide on this. 

El. Away, for there is in thee no help. 

Chr. There is ; but thou hast not docility to learn it. 

El. Go and disclose all this to thy mother. 

1 'A\X' svvof~iv xpV TovTo [isv, yvvaXx on 
"EtpvfiEv, ojQ TTpog dvdpag ov fxaxovfikva' 

"ETTfira S' ovvsic' ap^OjUfo-^' tjc Kpufffjoviov. Ant. v. 61. 

2 Schol. t(JTai Kuipbg, ote jue ev(p7]fjir](TeiQ. Potter makes the sentence 
break off abruptly, which seems contrary to the practice of the Greek 
poets, the connexion being nowhere afterwards resumed. Hermann 
translates it thus, " oportebit me audire te etiam laudantem mores meos." 
Monk, " sustinebo te audire, etiamsi mutas orationem at probas mores 



144 ELECTllA. 1034—1055. 

Chr. Nay, I hate thee not with so j^^-eat hatrod. 

El. Well then, think at least to what infamy thou art lead- 
ing me^ 

Chr. Not infamy, but forethought for thyself. 

El. What, must I then follow thine idea of justice? 

Chr. Yes ; for when thou art in thy right mind, then shalt 
thou lead me. 

El. Truly 'tis hard, that one who speaks so well should 
err. 

Chr. Thou hast rightly stated the evil in which thou art 
implicated. 

El. But how ? do I not seem to thee to say this with 
justice ? 

Chr. Yet there are cases where justice causes injury. 

El. By these rules I choose not to live. 

Chr, Yet if thou shalt so act, thou wilt commend me^. 

El. Yet will I do it at all events, no ways frightened by 
thee. 

Chr. And is this certain, and wilt thou not re-deliberate ? 

El. No, for nothing is more detestable than base deli- 
beration. 

Chr. Me thinks thou givest not a thought to aught I say. 

El. Long since, and not lately, hath this been resolved on 
by me. 

Chr. Then I will be gone, for neither canst thou endure to 
approve of my words, nor I of thy conduct. 

El. But go in. For think not I shall ever follow thee, not 
even if thou chancedst to be very desirous, since even the pur- 
suit of shadows is the part of great folly. 

Chr. But if haply thou seemest to thyself to possess any 



^ But Hermann, *'Referuntur haec ad prsecedentia ut plena oratio sit, 
dW ovv fcTTicrrw y' l-)(Qaigov(ya, oi fi' arifiiag dyeig: at sane te scias me 
odisse pro eo gradu contemtus, ad quern usque usque me despicis." 
Bninck's explanation he terms all but unintelligible. Tr. — Brunck seems 
right. Electra complains that her sister, by not aiding in her plans of 
revenging her father's death, exposed her to the disgrace of seeming back- 
ward in such a cause. B. 

2 That is, " having made the attempt you intend, in the hour of punish- 
ment (or failure) you will too late commend my prudence in declining to 
aid you." That this meaning must be given to the sentence is evident 
from Electra's answer. See also v. 1056. 



1056—1090. ELECTRA. 145 

sense, show your sense thus ; for when now thou shalt have 
set thy foot into troubles, thou wilt approve of my words. 

Ch. Why, beholding the birds of air, most feeling, busied 
in proNdding support for both those from whom they have 
sprung, and those from whom they have derived benefit, do 
we not equally practise this^? But no, by Jove"s lightning and 
heavenly Themis, long \W11 they not be unpunished^. O ru- 
mour of mankind that piercest earth, echo for me downwards 
a lamentable cry to the Atridse beneath, fraught with joyless 
disgrace : that now their domestic affairs are distempered, 
and that as concerns their children, a discordant strife no lon- 
ger suffers them to meet in affectionate intercourse. But 
abandoned, alone, sad Electra is agitated, ever sighing for a 
father, like the all-sorroN^ng nightingale, now utterly careless 
of death, nay, ready to quit the light, when she has destroyed 
the twin Fury. Who ever so noble could have arisen^ ? No 
one of noble state, in adversity, is willing nameless to debase 
its high renown, my child, my child, even as thou hast adopted a 
vile life of utter misery, warring down the dishonourable, to 
reap two benefits in one word, the reputation of being both wise 
and the best of childi-en*. I pray thou mayest live in might 

^ Alluding to the filial affection of the stork, and that bird only, as is 
evident from the Birds of Aristophanes: — 

'AX\' lariv r'jiMV To'iaiv opviGiv vo/jiog 
TraXaibg, iv toIq tujv TreXapyoJv Kvp[3e<TLV' 
tTTijv 6 7rar?)jO 6 TreXapyog iKTrsTijcri^ovg 
Trdvrag Tzoiiiay rovg iTtKapyi^Cig Tpk(pu}v, 
Su TOVQ veoTToi'g rbv Trarspa ttciXiv rpkcpeiv. 

Aw. V. 1353. 
The rest of the feathered race are represented as killing their parents, 
which circumstance indeed brings the parricide to cloudcuckooburgh. 

2 " Quod Monkio placet, hoc dici scihcet at pimientur liberi qui hoc 
offichim negligunt, id quum propter gravem illam Jovis et Themidis ob- 
testationem, quae frigida foret in tali sententia, non est verisimile, turn 
etiam propter lapov, quod nisi ad CEgisthum et Clytemnestram spectaret, 
plane esset supervacaneum." Herm. 

3 " Camerarius sic vertit. In t aline fortuna florere qneat iiUa paternas 
noh'ditatis conscia ? Pari fere sensu Johnsonus: Quis bonis prognatus 
sic vivere siistineat ? Mihi versus enthusiastice a Choro proferri videtur, 
magnanimitatem Electrse miranti: Quis iinqnam adeo generosa eurtitit." 
Mujgrave. — "When shall such hero live again ?" Giaour. Tr. ^' de 
voted to her father," Liddell. s. v. tVTraTcig. B. 

'* " Ita tu quoque ill<stahile commune fatum prcetulisti, scelus armans, 
ut duplicem ferres laudem, nimulque et sapiens et optima Jilia dicerere. 



146 ELECTRA. 1091—1125. 

and opulence as much superior to thy foes as now thou dwell - 
est beneath their hands ; since I have found thee not indeed 
moving in a prosperous station, but observing the most excellent 
of those laws which flourish the highest, by thy piety to Jove. 
Or. Have we, ladies, been rightly informed, and are we 
rightly journeying whither we desire ? 

Ch. But what dost thou iaquire of us, and with what wish 
art thou here ? 

Or. Long since am I asking for -iJEgisthus, where he dwells. 
Ch. Nay, then, both rightly art thou come, and thy inform- 
ant is blameless. 

Or. Who of you then would announce to those within the 
wished for presence of our common feet^ 

Ch. She will, if at least it befits the nearest relative to 
herald this. 

Or. Go, lady, within, and signify that certain men from 
Phocis are in quest of ^Egisthus. 

El. Ah unhappy me ! surely they can never be bringing 
evident proofs of the report which we have heard ? 

Or. I know not the rumour thou hintest at, but the aged 
Strophius bade me bring tidings concerning Orestes. 

El. But what is it, stranger ? How fear steals upon me ! 
Or. Bringing them in a narrow urn, we, as thou seest, 
convey the poor remains of him dead. 

El. Unhappy me ! this then is that now certain : it seems, 
I see my sorrow manifested. 

Or. If at all thou weepest for Orestes' ill, know that this 
vase encloses his remains. 

El. O stranger, give it me now, if truly this vessel enshrines 
him, to hold in my hands, that I may weep and lament my- 
self and my whole race at once together with these ashes. 

Or. Bring it forward and give it her, whoever she is ; for 
not as in enmity at least to him she requests this, but being 
either some friend or by birth akin. 

Armare enim quum dicitur Electra scelus, id patet idem esse ac provocare 
ad dimicationem, cujus incertus est eventus, unde mortem ilia prseoptasse 
dicitur.' ' Herm. 

1 See V. 1357, upon which Franklin has the following note: "The ex- 
pression in the original is remarkable, tj^lutov Ixwv ttoSiov vTrrjpsTrjfjia, 
dnlcissimum habens pedum ministerium ; not unlike that of the prophet 
Isaiah : ' How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
bringeth glad tidings 1' " 



1126—1152. ELECTRA. 147 

El. O monument of him among mankind dearest to me^, 
relic of the living Orestes, with hopes how changed from those 
wherewith I once sent thee forth, do I receive thee back ! For 
now I bear thee in my hands, a nothing ; but from thy home, 
my boy, I sent thee blooming forth. How would I that had 
quitted life, ere with these hands having stolen, I dismissed 
thee to a foreign land, and rescued thee from murder, that 
thou on that day hadst laid a corpse, and shared a common 
portion of his tomb with thy father ! But now, far from thine 
home, and in a foreign land an exile, miserable hast thou 
perished, away from thy sister ; nor with affectionate hands 
have I prepared the bath for thee*, nor from the all-consuming 
pyre borne away, as fitting, the hapless burden. No, but by 
stranger hands thou, hapless, cared for, art come a little freight 
in a little urn. Woe is me unhappy for my nurture of yore, 
Tmprofitable ! wherein I oft engaged for thee with pleasing 
toil ! for never wert thou dearer to thy mother than to me ; 
nor were they within, but I, thy nurse, yes, I as a sister was 
ever accosted by thee. But now hath all this vanished in a 
single day with thee, no more ; yes, all hast thou with thee 
swept, and like a hurricane art passed away. My father is 
departed, I with thee am dead — thyself art dead and gone ; 

1 Aulus Gellius, 7. 5. relates of Polus, a distinguished Athenian actor, 
already mentioned in a note at the beginning of the CEdipus Tyrannus, 
that not long before the acting of this play he had lost a much-loved and 
only son. Having to perform in the character of Electra, he brought his 
son's urn and ashes from their sepulchre on the stage, and thus turned a 
counterfeit into a real passion. Herm. 

2 " The custom of washing the bodies of the dead is very ancient. This 
office was always performed by the nearest relations : Socrates, as we are 
informed by Plato, washed himself before his execution, probably to 
prevent its being done by strangers: Alcestis likewise in Euripides, after 
she had determined to die for her husband, washes herself. The Romans 
adopted this custom from the Greeks; and we find the mother of Euryalus 
making the same complaint as Electra, — 

Nee te tua funera mater 

Produxi, pressive oculos, aut vulnera lavi. 

Virg. ^n. IX."— Franklin. Tr. 
— Cf. Tibullus, I. 3, 3. "■ Me tenet ignotis aegrum Phaeaciaterris. Absti- 
neas avidas mors modo nigra manus. Abstineas, mors atra, precor; nou 
hie mihi mater, Quag legat in mcEstos ossa perusta sinus. Non soror, 
Assyrios cineri quae dedat odores, Et fleat efFusis ante sepulchra coffiis." 
See also Lucan. vii. 739. B. 

L 2 



148 ELECTRA 1153— 11 7G. 

bnt our foes laugh ; and our unmothered^ mother is frantic 
with delight; on whom thou oftentimes M^ouldst send me 
word in secret that thou wert on the point thyself to come an 
avenger. But this thine and my luckless destiny hath wrested 
from us, which hath sent thee to me thus, in place of a form 
most dear, ashes and unavailing shadow. Ah me, ah me ! O 
piteous corpse 1 alas ! alas ! O best beloved, brought on thy 
way most dreadful, ah me ! me ! how hast thou undone me, 
indeed undone me, mine own brother ! Wherefore admit thou 
me into this thy mansion, me a nothing, to a nothing, that 
with thee in the grave I may henceforward dwell ; for as, 
when thou wert on earth, with thee I shared an equal fortune, 
so now in death I long not to fail of [sharing] thy tomb ; for 
I see not that the dead are pained^. 

Ch. Thou art begotten of a mortal father, Electra, reflect ; 
and mortal is Orestes, wherefore sigh not too deeply, for to 
all to suffer this is owing. 

Or. Alas I alas ! what shall I say ! whither, at a loss for 
words, shall I betake me^ ! For control my tongue can I no 
longer. 

El. But what grief didst thou feel ? wherefore happens it 
thou sayest this ? 

^ The general analogy of language, and the use of similar words by the 
best authors (as of "unfathered, unkinged," by Shakspeare, and " un- 
childed," in a sense corresponding to that of the Greek word here, by 
Bishop Hall) will, it is hoped, excuse this expression, though the trans- 
lator is not prepared to adduce any passage in its support. To those who 
think this too great a liberty, the translation of Savage in his finest poem, 
" O mother, yet no mother! " will be an acceptable refuge from Franklin's 
or Potter's. 

2 Brunck translates this " mortuos enim dolore confliciari non video." 
Franklin, "the dead are free from sorrows." Potter. 

" — _ — The dead are free 

From all the various woes of mortal life." 
The two latter did not, it appears, consider it as anything more than a 
general sentiment. The translator is rather inclined to suppose it a re- 
proach, though " clerkly couched," to the shade of Agamemnon, the 
ebullition of despair at the neglect of all her prayers and the frustration of 
all her hopes. Tr. — With the preceding words compare Antig. 897, 
sqq. B. 

2 "'A/ijj%aj/uiv Malim sic, ut sit participium, vulgo dij,rixdv(jjv ah 
dfirjxavog." Musgrave. Which Brunck confirms (see his note) on 
authority. " Bene, mea sententia, modo ne pravam interpunctionem 
adjecisset. Nam, ut recte monet Monkius, ttoI \6yu)v jungenda sunt, 
qui tamen addere debebat ad eumdem genitivum etiam participium d/xj^- 
Xavuiv referendum esse." Herm. 



1177—1201. ELECTRA. 149 

Or. Is this of thine the illustrious form of Electra ? 

El. This is that person, and in most woeful plight. 

Or. Then woe is me for this sad mischance. 

El. Wherefore, stranger, can it be, that thou thus sighest 
over me ? 

Or. O form, in disgraceful and unholy sort impaired! 

El. It can be none else but me, surely, stranger, that 
thou deplorest. 

Or. Alas for thy marriageless and iU -fated life ! 

El. For what possible reason, stranger, canst thou thus 
gazing on me be mourning ? 

Or. How truly nothing had I known of my miseries ! 

El. In what that has been spoken hast thou discerned this ? 

Or. Beholding thee conspicuous for thy many griefs. 

El. And yet thou seest at least but few of mine ills. 

Or. And how could there ever exist more hateful than 
these to look on ? 

El. For that I am an inmate with the assassins. 

Or. With whose ? Whence this evil thou didst mention ? 

El. My father's. Nay more, to them perforce I slave. 

Or. Why, who of mankind impels thee forward to this 
necessity^ ? 

El. My mother she is called; but with a mother hath 
nought in common. 

Or. Perpetrating what ? with violence, or with penury of 
livmg ? 

El. With violence, with penury, with every ill. 

Or. And is there none at hand who M-ill aid thee, and 
prevent her ? 

El. None indeed. For him I had, hast thou brought 
hither in ashes. 

Or. Ah hapless ! how long since beholding do I pity thee ! 

El. Know that of mankind thou alone hast compassionated 
me now at last. 

Or. Yes, for I alone come in pain for thy woes. 

^ Hermann somewhat differently : " avdyKy Tyde non est dativus, idem 
significans quod elg dvdyKrjv rrjvSs, sed ablativus : Quis te mortalmm hac 
serviendi necessitate cogit? Quod exquisitius dictum pro, quts tibi hanc 
necessitatem imponit? 'AvdyKy irpoTpkiru idem est quod dvayKdZ^tn et 
quum ravra dicere deberet, pronomen ad nomen dvdyKy accommodavit, 
ut Solent." Tr. — Hermann is right. Translate: " what man rules thee 
under this slave's lot?" B. 



150 ELECTRA. 1202—1223. 

El. Thou surely art not come from some quarter akin to 
me? 

Or. I would tell thee, if the presence of these be friendly. 

El. It is friendly, so that thou wilt speak before the 
trusty. 

Or. Give up this urn now, that thou maycst leam the 
whole. 

El. Nay truly, by the gods, deal not thus with me, 
stranger. 

Or. Be persuaded as I say, and then never wilt thou err. 

El. Not, by thy beard^ I pray thee, bereave me not of 
what I hold most dear. 

Or. I cannot consent to let thee. 

El. Ah me unhappy for thee, Orestes, if I am to be 
deprived of thy tomb ! 

Or. Speak auspiciously, for not with reason dost thou 
mourn. 

El. How mourn I not with reason my dead brother ? 

Or. It suits thee not with these words to accost him^. 

El. Am I thus unworthy of the dead ? 

Or. Unworthy thou of none. But this is not thy part. 

El. At least, if this that I bear is the body of Orestes. 

Or. It is not Orestes', except in tale at least worked up. 

El. But where is the tomb of him unhappy ? 

Or. It is not. For the living has no tomb. 

El. How hast thou said, young man ? 

Or. Nought that I say is falsehood. 

El. What, lives the man ? 

Or. If at least I am alive. 

El. How, art thou he r 

Or. Having inspected this my father's seal*, ascertain if I 
speak truth. 

^ "Bj thy beard." This was a frequent adjuration among the ancients, 
as the beard was au object of great care, and the loss of it esteemed a 
great disgrace, as in the case of David's messengers to Hanun. In the 
Arabian Nights there is a proclamation in which the loss of the beard is a 
threatened penalty for failing to expound certain difficulties. 

2 Potter translates this, "Thy state it suits not thus to speak." Brunck, 
" Non te decet ista logui." But the word Trpoa^tovtiv seems to require 
that its preposition be more fully marked, besides that it makes the dis- 
covery more gradual, which is clearly Orestes' aim. 

3 <* What this mark was, has greatly puzzled the commentators. The 



1224—1254. ELECTRA.. 151 

El. O day most welcome ! 

Or. Most welcome, I join to witness. 

El. O voice, art thou come.'* 

Or. No more inquire elsewhere. 

El. Hold I thee in my hands ? 

Or. So mayest thou ever henceforth hold me\ 

El. dearest women, my countrywomen, ye see Orestes 
here, in artifice deceased, but now by artifice preserved. 

Ch. We see, my child, and at thy fortune the tear of 
gladness steals from mine eyes. 

El. O offspring, offspring of persons to me most dear, at 
length art thou come ! thou hast found, thou hast come, thou 
hast looked on those thou didst desire. 

Or. We are here. But tarry, keeping silence. 

El. But wherefore this ? 

Or. Better be silent, lest one from within hear us. 

El. But no, by the ever virgin Diana, this will I never 
deign, to dread the useless load of women that ever abides 
within^. 

Or. Yet see now at least, how even in women warlike 
daring exists : thou surely having experienced this knowest 
it full well. 

El. Alas ! alas ! thou hast introduced unclouded a calamity 
never to be remedied, never to be forgotten, such as was 
ours^. 

Or. I know this also. But when occasion shall prompt, 
then must we call to mind these deeds. 

El. All times*, all times were to me fitting as they passed 

scholiasts, whose conject vires are generally whimsical, will needs have it to 
be some remains of the ivory shoulder (vid. Find. Olymp. I.) of Pelops 
which was visible in all his descendants, as those of Cadmus were marked 
with a lance, and the Seleucidse with an anchor. Camerarius, and after 
him Brumoy, call it a ring or seal, which indeed is the most natural inter- 
pretation of the Greek word atppayig: though it may be said, in support 
of the other opinion, that the natural or bodily mark was more certain, 
and therefore a better proof of identity in regard to the person of Orestes." 
Franklin. 

^ Hermann, however, for wg reads wg. Tr. — And so Dind. B. 

^ " Sensus est, hanc quidem non dignam habebo quam metuam Cly- 
'temnestrcB nimiarn semper severitatem." Herm. Let the reader choose. 

^ avk(pt\ov eTTsBaXtg are to be construed together; Xriao^tvov pas- 
sively. 

■* Thus in Philoctetes, when Neoptolemus says he will sail on the first 



152 ELECTRA. 1255—1286. 

to denounce with justice this : for scarcely now have I 
freedom of speech. 

Or. I too agree with thee, wherefore keep this in mind. 

El. By doing what ? 

Or. Where it is unseasonable, wish not to speak at length. 

El. Who then, when thou hast appeared, would thus 
change their words for silence, at least of any worth .'* since 
now I have beheld thee, unpromised, as unhoped for. 

Or. Then didst thou behold me, when the gods urged me 
to return^. 

El. Thou hast told me a joy yet higher than my former, 
if heaven hath impelled thee to our abodes : I count this a 
thing of heaven's sending. 

Or. In part, I am reluctant to repress thy joy ; in part, I 
fear thy being too much overcome by rapture. 

El. O thou that thus hast deigned in length of time to 
show thyself with welcome approach to me, do not, I pray, 
having seen me thus deep in misery 

Or. What must I not do ? 

El. Kob me not of my joy at thy countenance, that I give 
it up''. 

Or. Nay I were enraged to see it even in others'. 

El. Dost thou consent ? 

Or. How should I not ? 

El. My friends, I have heard the voice I never couJd have 
hoped to hear I was cherishing a voiceless passion, wretched 
that I was, not even hearing the news with a shriek*. But 
now I have thee ; and thou hast dawned upon me with most 

favourable breeze, but that the wind is then adverse to them, Philoctetes 
replies, 

del KoXbg TrXovg 'iaQ' orav (ptvyyg Kaicd. 
^ Hermann supposes some such verse as the following to have been 
lost from this place: 

avTOL yeyijjTeg rijgde rfjg oSov f3pa(3rjg. 

2 Construe riSovdv with dTroareprjayg. " Greeci, cum verba duo, diver- 
sos casus regentia, ad idem nomen seque referantur, ne nomen proprium 
aut pronomen minus suaviter repetatur, in utrovis regimine semel ponunt, 
altero omisso." Pors. ad Med. 734. Hermann justly, therefore, wonders 
that Porson should have altered the accusative here into ddovdv. Of 
d-rroffTepuv with a double accus. see Matt. Gr. Gr. § 412. 

3 That is, "were I to see any other attempting to rob thee of that joy.'* 
* This beautifully expresses the depth of Electra's misery at the tidings 

of her brother's death ; for as Malcolm observes to Macduff, 



1287—1311. ELECTRA. 153 

dear aspect, which never could I have forgotten even in 
misery. 

Or. This overflow of words dismiss, and tell me neither 
how \\4cked is my mother, nor how ^gisthus drains the 
riches of my father's house^, and part he wastes, and part he 
idly squanders; for this thy tale would obstruct the timely 
occasion : but what will suit me best at the present season, 
instruct, where showing, or concealing ourselves, we may by 
this our journey quell our insulting foes. But so [beware] 
that thy mother shall not find thee out by thy cheerful coun- 
tenance, as we enter the palace, but, as for the calamity 
falsely announced, lament ; for when we shall have succeeded, 
then will be our time to rejoice, and freely laugh^. 

El. But, my brother, since thus it pleases thee, so shall 
my pleasm-e also be; since the joys I have received, I have 
so, deriving them from thee, and not mine own. And not by 
paining thee even a little would I choose myself to obtain a 
great advantage : for thus I were not duly obedient to our 
present good genius. But thou knowest all from hence : how 
shouldst thou not? hearing that JEgisthus is not within, but 
my mother is at home, whom never dread thou, that she shall 
see my countenance glowing with a smile : for both mine 
ancient hatred hath sunk deep into me', and since I have 
looked on thee I shall never cease shedding tears of joy. For 



-The grief that does not speak. 



WTiispers the o'eifraught heart, and bids it break." 
Hence Sophocles with the same idea makes Jocasta in CEdipus, and the 
queen in Antigone, quit the stage in silence; upon which latter occasion 
the Chorus says, on being asked by the messenger what Eurydice's sorrow 
may mean, 

" I know not, but a silence so reserved 

Imports some dread event: such are my thoughts; 
A clamorous sorrow wastes itself in sound." 
Hermann understands the passage very differently: " Neque dubitari 
potest, quin dvaviov ovSk cvv jioq. KKvovaa ad vocem hanc referendum 

sit, quain obticuisse mortuo Oreste acceperat Electra Facile 

conjicias ag taxov opyav, vel liv . . . . Id non cum b^yav sed cum 
avcdv conjungi deberet, hac constructione ixv dvavSov ovck cvv /3o^ 
KXvovcra taxov av^dv.'* 

^ Homer mentions the seduction of Clytemnestra, and luxurious indo- 
lence of ^gisthus, at large in his Odyssey, B. III. 

- Exactly the old saw: " let them laugh that win." B. 
^ Literally, "hath melted like wax into me." 



154 ELECTRA. 1312—1342. 

how should I cease, who in a single journey have beheld thee 
both dead and alive ? Yes, thou hast dealt unexpectedly with 
me: so that were my father to come to me aUve, no longer 
should I account it a prodigy, but believe I saw him. When 
then in such a way thou comest to me, lead thou, as thou art 
minded ; since I alone had not failed of two things, for either 
I had nobly delivered myself, or nobly perished. 

Or. I recommend thee to be silejit, since I hear some one 
of those within proceeding as on his way out. 

El. Enter ye, strangers, especially as bringing what none 
might reject from his house, nor be glad to receive within it^ 

Att. O utterly senseless and blasted in understanding ! 
What, have ye not longer any care for your life ? or have ye 
no inborn prudence in you, that, although no longer on the 
verge but in the very midst of the greatest dangers, ye know 
it not ? But had not I chanced long since to be watching at 
this portal, your schemes had been within the house before 
your persons ; but now I have exerted precaution against 
this. And now having bid adieu to protracted converse, and 
this insatiate clamour of delight, get ye privately within, 
since to delay is in such cases harm, but the crisis requires 
one to have done with it*. 

Or. How then are matters from thence with me if I enter ? 

Att. Well. For it chances that no one knows thee. 

Or. Thou hast reported, I suppose, that I am dead ? 

Att. Know now, that, here a man, thou art one of those 
in Hades^. 

1 This speech of Electra, as several of those she afterwards addresses 
to JEgisthus, is craftily ambiguous, in obedience to Orestes' instructions 
at V. 1296. 

2 Brunck translates this, ^'urget autem occasio ret gerendoe;" and 
Johnson, " tempus autem ipsum jam instat eccsequendi :" but as the 
verb cnraWcLGGOnai occurs just above, there seems no reason to alter 
its sense immediately afterwards. Of course the expression may be con- 
sidered as relating either to their " ridding themselves of the business by 
executing it," or to their bidding a temporary adieu to each other : on 
these the reader must decide for himself. Tr. — I think the phrase I have 
adopted the most literal, and also the most correct to the sense. The 
same thing is expressed in v. 21. — we ivravQ' 'iva Owk fVr' tV okvhv 
KaipoQ, a\X' tpyujv aKjxrj. B. 

3 I have some doubts whether greater stress should not he laid upon 
kvOdde, and the words construed thus : fidvOav' elg u)V civrip tCjv Iv 



1343—1371. ELECTRA. 155 

Oil. Are they tlien glad at this ? or what are then- senti- 
ments ? 

Att. When all these things are finished, I would tell thee; 
but as things now go all is well with them, even what is not 
welP. 

El. Who is this, my brother ? tell me, by the gods. 

Or. Knowest thou not ? 

El. At least I bring him not to mind. 

Or. Knowest thou not into whose hands thou once didst 
deliver me ? 

El. To whom? How sayest thou? 

Or. By whose hands I was privately conveyed to the 
Phocian's land, by thy forethought. 

El. What? is this he, whom once alone of many I found 
faithful at the time of my father's murder^? 

Or. This is he : question me with no more words. 

El. O dearest light ! O sole preserver of Agamemnon's 
house, how hast thou come ? w^hat, art thou he who saved him 
and me from many a woe ? O dearest hands ! O thou that 
hast the most welcome service of the feet^ ! How thus long 
present to me didst thou elude, nor disclose thyself to me, 
but didst destroy me in words, bearing deeds most pleasant 
to me ? Hail, my father, for a father I seem to behold ; O 
hail ! But know that thee of all men I most abhorred, most 
loved, in a single day. 

Att. Methinks it is enough ; since for the tale* that inter- 
venes, many a night and day as long revolves, which shall 
explain all this clearly to thee, Electra. But I advise you at 
least that stand here, that now is the season for action ; now 
Clytemnestra is alone ; now there is not a man within : but if 
ye shall delay, bethink you that ye will have to battle with 
both these and other foes, more crafty and more numerous 
than these. 

"Ai^ov tvOdds, "know, that thou art an inhabitant of Hades, as far as 
those here are a wit the wiser, ^^ i. e., you're dead, for all they know. B. 

^ i. e. the conduct of Clytemnestra and ^gisthus. 

- " Faithful found. 

Among the faithless, faithful only he." 

3 See note on v. 1104. 

'* Cf. " Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act v., sc. 4 :— 
" Please you I'll tell you as we pass along. 
That you will wonder what hath fortuned." B, 



156 ELKCTRA. 1372—1399. 

Or. No more of lengtlicued discourse to us, Pylades, 
doth this work admit of, but with all speed to haste within, 
having saluted the paternal abodes of the deities, as many as 
dwell in his vestibule^. 

El. O King Apollo, favourably hear them, and with them 
me, who many a time indeed with suppliant hand, and such 
store as I possessed, have stood before thee. But now, 
Lycsean Apollo, with such as I have, I beg, I fall before thee, 
I implore thee; be thou a willing abettor to us in these de- 
signs, and show mankind what reward, the price of impiety, 
the gods bestow. 

Ch. Behold where Mars spreads forth, breathing the blood 
of sad strife. Even now are entering beneath the palace roof 
the hounds that follow after evil villanies, from whom is no 
escape'^ : wherefore not much longer will the presage of my 
soul continue in suspense. For the stealthy-footed avenger 
of the dead is brought within the house, to the dwelling of 
his father teeming with ancient wealth, having upon his hands 
blood newly shed^ ; and the son of Maia* Mercury conducts 
him, in darkness burjdng his guile, to the very boundary, nor 
longer tarries. 

El. ladies, most beloved, the men will forthwith accom- 
plish the deed ; but wait it in silence. 

1 Thus Philoctetes, by the desire of Neoptolemus, salutes the tutelary 
guardians of his dreary abode when on the point of quitting Lemnos. 
■2 Hermann understands this of Orestes and Pylades. 
3 Hermann has dissipated the clouds of the grammarians respecting 
alfia in the sense of sword, by shewing that the metre requires veoKo- 
VTjTOv, from Kivu). Cf. Eu. El. 1172- The verse is a double dochmaic. 
"* " Mercury was the god of fraud and treachery, and called coXtog, or 
the deceiver ; to him therefore were attributed all secret schemes and ex» 
peditions, good or bad. The propriety of Mercury's peculiar assistance 
in this place may likewise be accounted for from his relation to !Myrtilus, 
who was slain by Pelops." Franklin. To which he might have added 
the personal slight that Mercury had received from ^Egisthus. See 
Homer, Od. 1. 

" Hermes I sent, while yet his soul remain'd 
Sincere from royal blood, and faith profaned ; 
To warn the wretch that young Orestes, grown 
To manly years, should reassert the throne : 
Yet impotent of mind, and uncontroll'd, 
He plunged into the gulf which heaven foretold." 

Pope's Trans., 1. 49. 



1400 -1423. ELECTRA. 157 

Ch. How then ^ What do they now ? 

El. She is preparing a cauldron for the burial, but they 
are standing close by her. 

Cii. And wherefore hast thou hurried out ? 

El, To watch that ^gisthus may not escape us on return- 
ing within. 

\Cl\jte^nnestra from ivithin.'] Oh! oh! alas! alas! Oh 
dwellings, destitute of friends, but full of the destroyers ! 

El. Some one shrieks within. Hear ye not, my friends^? 

Ch. I unhappy heard what was not fit to be heard, so that 
1 shuddered. 

Cly. Unhappy me ! ^gisthus, where canst thou be ? 

El. Hark! again some one cries aloud. 

Cly. My son, my son, pity her that bore thee. 

El. But not by thee was he pitied, nor the father that 
begat him. 

Ch. O citj% race ill-fated! now destiny day after day 
wastes thee, wastes thee ! 

Cly'. Ah me, I am stricken ! 

El. Strike, if thou hast strength, a double stroke. 
' Cly. ^Yoe is me again and again ! 

El. Would it were likewise woe to ^igisthus. 

Ch. The curses are fulfilled; they that lie beneath the 
earth are alive ; for the long since dead are secretly shedding 
the copious-streaming blood of those that slew them. And 
now indeed they are here, and their gory hand is dripping 
with the fii'st sacrifice to Mars ; yet can I not speak^ ! 

^ " Dacier puts these words into the mouth of one of the women that 
compose the Chorus ; because (says he) Electra wouLi never have said, 
'some one cries out,' as she knew it must be Clytemnestra. The reader 
may take his choice in regard to this alteration. I have left it as it stands 
in the original, being a matter of no great consequence." Thus Franklin ; 
— neither he nor the French critic seeming aware that tiq in this passage 
no more implies ignorance of the person, than it does in many passages 
of Aristophanes, for instance, in the Ranse, vv. 552, 601, 628, or than in 
St. Luke, c. viii. v. 46. 

^ Hermann reads \//£y£tv, putting these lines into the mouth of the 
Chorus, and the following half verse, which he gives to Electra thus : 
'Op£<Tra, ttCjq kuoeT ^k ; but to understand these words, ov^' 'ixio -^psytiv, 
of the murder of Clytemnestra, would suit neither the character of the 
Chorus nor the time. Hermann has therefore referred them to 'AofOQ 
after which he puts a comma, and compares II. A. 539. Tr. — I have fo. 
lowed Dindorf. B. 



158 ELECTRA. 1424--1452. 

El. Orestes, how is it? 

Or. For what is within the palace, well, if well Apollo 
hath predicted. 

El. Is the wretched woman dead? 

Or. No longer fear that thy mother's spirit will ever insult 
thee. 

Ch. Have done : for I plainly perceive -ZEgisthus. 

El. Youths, will ye not retire hastily? 

Or. Perhaps ye discern the man [coming] towards us*? 

El. He from the suburb advances rejoicing. 

Ch. Go through the opposite doorway with all possible 
speed* : now, having well-disposed of all before, so [do] this 
again in turn'. 

Or. Courage ; we will effect it. 

El. Hasten now, whither thou purposest. 

Or. Well, then, I am gone. 

El. The rest should be my care. 

Ch. It would be useful to whisper a few words at least as 
mildly as possible to this man in his ear, that headlong he 
may rush into the covert strife of vengeance. 

^GisTHUs. Who of you knows where the Phocian 
strangers can be, who, they say, bring us news that Orestes 
has lost his life amid the wrecks of the chariots ? Thee, yes, 
thee, even thee I question, in time past so audacious, since I 
think thou hast most care for it, and best knowest so as to 
tell me. 

El. I do know it: for how should I not? for else had I 
been stranger to a casualty of dearest import of all to me. 

^G. Where then may be the strangers? instruct me. 

El. Within; for a friendly hostess have they encoun- 
tered*. 

j^G. What, and reported they of his death as certain? 

1 Orestes, eiaopdre ttov tov avdg ', and then Electra, t<p'TjfiXv, k. t. X. 
So Hermann, who excepts the verb from the interrogation thus : " Ye 
see the man; where ?" 

2 '' Est avTidvpov locus in sedibus interior oppositus foribus. V. Lucian 
Alexandre 16 ; Hemsterh. App. Anim. p. 15." Hermann. 

2 Qriadi. is to be understood. Herm. 

^ There is an intentional ambiguity in all Electra's language here: 
KaTrjvvffav, upon which depends the genitive, has a double meaning of the 
preposition Kara: C07ifecerunt [viam vel rem'} Kara. Herm. 



1453—1475. ELECTRA. ] ^9 

El. Xay, but tliey have also shown it to sight, not in 
words only. 

^Eg. And is it for us to ascertain it as evident also? 

El. It is indeed at hand, and a most unenviable spectacle. 

^G. Yerilv thou hast bidden me rejoice much, not in thy 
■wonted manner. 

El. Joy thou, if such as this is joyful to thee. 

^Eg. I bid you to keep silence, and to throw open the 
g:ates for all Mycenae and Ai'gos to behold^ that if any 
among them was heretofore buoyed up with empty hopes of 
this man, now seeing him dead he may receive my curb, nor 
to his cost beget him after-wisdom, meeting with me his 
chastiser. 

El. And now is my part fulfilled, for at length I have got 
the sense to suit my betters. 

^G. O Jove, I behold a sight that hath not fallen without 
the ill-will of the gods : but if Nemesis attend. I recall my 
words^. Remove all covering from mine eyes, that my kin- 
di-ed. look you, may meet with lamentation from me too. 

Ok. Do thou thyself lift it: this is not my part but thine, 
both to look on this, and accost it as a friend. 

^Eg. Xay, thou advisest well, and I will obey; but do 
thou, if haply Clytemnesti-a be within, call her. 

Or. She is close by thee, look not elsewhere. 

xEg. Ah me ! what do I behold : 

Ok. "\Miom fearest thou r whom knowest thou not ? 



1 It was a common practice among the Greeks to set tlie corpse out to 
view. See Adam's Roman Antiquities on the word depos^itiis, where he 
observes, that this custom was probably derived from that of exposing sick 
persons before the doors of their houses, that the passers by might su2:gest 
any medicine they had known to be of service in similar cases, as men- 
tioned by Herodotus, b. i. 197. " ^Egisthus, imagining that these Phocian 
strangers had brought the dead body of Orestes, expected to find it laid 
at the entrance of the house, ad limeu, such being the general usage of 
antiquity." Potter. 

- See note on v. 792. Potter remarks on the peculiar indecency of 
which _Egisthus was here guilty, (and in which he checks himself,) he 
being a near relation to Orestes, But Hermann retains in the former line 
the old reading gv, and compares ^Esch. Agam. 913. with this meaning: 
'' cecidit ille via et ins^idia deorum, si fas est hoc dicere. Sentit enim 
ipse impudenter se banc mortem justitiee deorum adscribere ; unde addit, 
«■ hoc nefas est indictum volo." 



100 ELECTRA. 1476—1503. 

tEg. Into what men's surrounding trammels can I wretched 
have fallen? 

Or. What, perceivest thou not long ago, that thou par- 
leyest with the living just as dead? 

JEg. Ah me ! I comprehend thy words ; for it cannot be 
but this that speaketh to me must be Orestes. 

Or. Ay, and though so good a prophet, wert thou deceived 
thus longM 

jEg. Then wretched I am undone: but permit me to say, 
though but a little. 

El. Let him speak no further, in heaven's name, my bro- 
ther, nor lengthen out his words. For what profit should he 
among mortals involved in evils, that is about to die, gain 
by time? No, slay him with utmost speed ; and having slain 
expose him to buriers, such as "tis reason he should have, 
unseen of us*. Since this could be the only atonement to 
me of my former wrongs. 

Or. Thou must go speedily within : for the strife is not 
now of words, but for thy life. 

^G. Why takest thou me in-doors? how, if this deed be 
honourable, needs it darkness, and why art not thou ready 
with thine hand to slay me? 

Or. Order not, but go thither -vvhere thou slewest my 
father, that on that very spot thou mayest die. 

JEg. What! is it absolutely doomed that this roof witness 
both the present and future ills of the Pelopidse? 

Or. Thine at all events. I am in this a capital soothsayer 
to thee. 

^G. But no paternal art is this thou hast vaunted. 

Or. Thou answerest much, while thy departure is retarded: 
but begone. 

^G. Lead the way. 

Or. Thou must go first. 

^G. Is it that I escape thee not? 

Or. Nay, lest thou die then with pleasure': it is my duty 

^ Orestes means that ^gisthus, who could now foresee his fate so 
clearly, might have anticipated it long ago. 

2 Potter observes, on the authority of Pausanias, that ^gisthus and 
Clytemnestra, being held unworthy of a tomb in the same place in which 
Agamemnon lay, were buried just outside the city walls. 

^ Compare this sentiment of Orestes with that of Hamlet, where he 



1504--1510. ELECTRA. 161 

to keep this bitter to thee ; but good were it that this ven- 
geance were immediate on all, at least, whoever mshes to 
transgress the laws, to slay them. For then were not villany 
abundant. 

Ch. O seed of Atreus, how much having suffered hast thou 
hardly worked out thy way to freedom^ brought to com- 
pletion by the present attempt! 

hesitates to kill his uncle while praying. We must hope for the sake of 
the authors that they considered both their heroes as madmen. 
^ Or, ** come by freedom." 



M 



1— J 



ANTIGONE 



Creon having cast out Polynices, (who had fallen in single combat with 
his brother) without burial, Antigone, his sister, despite the proclama- 
tion of the king, buries him herself. She is at length discovered by the 
guards, and, despite the intercession of Haemon, is ordered to be en- 
tombed alive: Creon's cruelty is visited by the death of his son and 
wife, as Tiresias has predicted, and his repentance and wish to save 
Antigone come too late. B. 



DRAMATIS PERSONJE. 



Antigone. 

IsMENE. 

Chorus. 
Creon. 



Messengers. 

Hjemon. 

TlRKSIA^S. 
EURYDICE. 



Antigone. O kindred form of my own sister Ismene-, 
knowest thou what'^ of the ills which spring from (Edipus — 
what not — doth Jove yet accomplish to us in life? for there 
is nothing, either wretched or ruinous'^, or base and degrading, 

^ The curses of CEdipus have now been fulfilled : Polynices and Eteo- 
cles have fallen by each other's hands, and the army of the Argives has 
been routed before the walls of Thebes. Antigone is not forgetful of the 
request of Polynices at their last interview, and determines, in spite of the 
edict to the contrary, to bestow the rites of sepulture on her unhappy bro- 
ther. As the play mainly turns on this circumstance, it is necessary to 
bear in mind how much importance the ancients attached to the burial of 
the dead. The constancy of Antigone's resolution will thus be explained, 
the violence of her sisterly affection justified, and even the merit of her 
generous conduct enhanced. Tr. — "Ismene, dear in very sisterhood," 
Donaldson, who has a somewhat ingenious note upon the periphrase Kapa 
'I(Tfxf]vr]g. He compares the English "poll" in ''polling," "catch- 
poll," etc. B. 

2 I have rendered this passa^ literally, but the intervening interrogation 
oTTolov ovx't causes much difiiculty. If we read on, the construction will 
be simpler. B. 

2 The reader must choose between dyrjg drep, (the common, but appa- 
rently corrupt reading,) dyrjg dTep=unenviable, of Coray, which Wunder 



6—29. ANTIGONE. 163 

which I have not beheld in your evils and mine. And now 
again, what is this proclamation which they say the ruler has 
just propounded to all the people of the city? Knowest thou? 
and hast thou heard aught? or do the injuries of enemies 
advancing against friends escape thee ? 

IsMENE. To me indeed, Antigone, no tidings of friends, 
either sweet or sorrowful, have come from the time that we 
two were bereft of two brothers, dying on the same day by a 
twin slaughter : and since the army of the Argives has disap- 
peared during this night, I know nothing further, whether I 
fare better or am more afflicted. 

Ant. I knew it well: and therefore have I brought thee* 
without the gates of the courts, that you might hear alone. 

Ism. But what is it? for you appear stirred at some 
tidings^. 

Ant. For has not Creon distinguished one of our brothers 
with burial rites, but deprived the other of this honour? 
Eteocles, indeed, as they say^, acting upon the rights of 
justice and law, he has entombed beneath the earth, honour- 
able to the gods below ; but the corpse of Polynices, which 
wretchedly fell, ihey say it has been proclaimed to the 
citizens that no one shall inclose in the tomb, nor wail over, 
but leave it unlamented and unburied*, a sweet store for 

follows; aTijg s^ov, of Porson ; or dri^v dyov, of Donaldson. The com- 
mon reading is thus explained by Hermann : ovotv tCjv Ifiivv KaKwv ovie 
aXyEivov oTTioira ovr' oTrwrra, (this being the leading part of the sen- 
tence) drijQ drep, ovd' 'iariv ottoIov ovk alxpov oiiS' dnixov oirojTca. An 
Attic audience must have had little relish for plain speaking, who could 
bear a sentence that might be negative or affirmative at pleasure! B. 

^ On tt.6.7reii7rov see Donaldson. B. 

2 I am again indebted to Donaldson, who has clearly shown that 
Kokxaivovaa is intransitive, and that trrog refers to what Antigone had 
to communicate. This is confirmed by the preceding words of Antigone, 
to which the answer now seems a natural one. B. 

2 There is much difficulty about this passage. Hermann would read 
%py(T0£<c in the sense "■ rogatus justa," alluding to the request of Eteocles 
to Creon. See Scholia. Donaldson reads TrpoaOsig. The explanations 
of the common reading are quite unsatisfactory. B. 

^ This was the judgment which God denounced against Jehoiakim, king 
of Judah: "They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother! or. 
Ah, sister! they shall not lament for him, saying. Ah, lord! or. Ah, his 
glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass," etc. Jer. xxii, 18, 
19. The customs and manners of the Greeks vvere originally drawn from 
the Eastern nations ; which accounts for the similitude so observable ia 



164 ANTIGONE. 30—57. 

birds greedily eying the delight of the banquet. Such things 
they say that the good Creon has proclaimed to you and me, 
for I say even me, and that he is coming hither to herald 
them clearly forth to those who do not know them, and to 
bid them consider the matter not as a thing of nought, but 
whosoever shall do one of those things, that a death by the 
stoning of the people is decreed him in the city. Thus rests 
this case to you, and you will quickly show whether you have 
been born of generous spirit, or degenerate from the good. 

Ism. But what, oh wretched woman! if these things are in 
this state, could I avail, loosing or binding'? 

Ant. Consider if thou wilt labour along with me, and assist 
me in the work. 

Ism. In what sort of hazard? Where possibly are you in 
thought? 

Ant. If you will raise up along with this hand the dead 
body. 

Ism. For do you design to bury him, a thing forbidden by 
the state? 

Ant. Yes, him who is at all events my brother; and yours, 
though you wish it not^ ; for I will not be caught betraying 
him. 

Ism. Oh daring woman! when Creon has forbidden? 

Ant. But he has no business to put a barrier betwixt me 
and mine^. 

Ism. Ah me! consider, oh sister! how our father perished 
in odium and infamy, having, upon his self- detected guilt, 
himself torn out both his eyes with self-destroying hand : then 
his mother and wife, a double title, mars her life by the sus- 
pended cords: and, third, the two wretched brothers, slaying 
themselves on the same day, wrought their mutual death each 

Sophocles, and other heathen writers, with some parts of Holy Writ. 
Franklin. 

^ Donaldson rejects Boeck's view, and renders it generally: " by doing 
or undoing." But see Wunder's note. B. 

2 That is, " Though you, an unnatural sister, would disown him:" or 
it may be, more simply, "I will bury him, though you do not wish it." 

^ This dialogue between Antigone and Ismene exceedingly resembles 
that between the sisters in the tragedy of Electra, by the same author. 
The sentiments and the characters entirely correspond. Antigone and 
Electra are generous and bold; Ismene and Chrysothemis selfish and 
pitiful. 



58 — 85. ANTIGONE. 165 

by a brother's hand. And now we two, being left alone, 
consider by how much the worst of all we shall perish, if, in 
violation of the law, we transgress the decree or power of 
superiors. But it behoves us, indeed, to reflect in the first 
place, that we are by nature women, so as not able to contend 
against men: and then, since we are ruled by those more 
powerful, to submit to these things, and things still more 
painful than these. I then indeed, asking those below the 
earth to forgive me, since I am constrained to this, will obey 
those who walk in office^ ; for to attempt those things beyond 
our power, implies no wisdom. 

Ant. Neither will I request you, nor though you now wish 
to do it, should you act along with me, at least with my good- 
will. But be' of such a character as seems good to you ; but 
I will bury him : it were glorious to me, doing this, to die. I 
beloved will lie with him, — with him I love, having audaciously 
done what is holy' ; since the time is longer which it behoves 
me to please those below than those here; for there I shall 
ever lie. But if it seems good to you, do you hold in dis- 
honour those things which are honoured of the gods. 

IsM. I indeed do not hold them in dishonour ; but to act 
against the will of the citizens I am by nature incapable. 

Ant. You indeed may make this pretext, but I will go to 
raise a tomb for my dearest brother. 

Ism. Woe is me! for you unhappy! how exceedingly I fear 
for you*! 

Ant. Fear not for me ; — direct aright your own fate. 

Ism. But do not then at any rate previously disclose this 
deed to any one, but conceal it in secret, and in like manner 
will I conceal it. 

^ This is a principle of conduct with a great many people besides 
Israene, though they may not always be quite so candid as the young lady 
in confessing it. 

2 Branck has here made a mistake in deriving IffOi from larjfii scio, 
instead of elfii sum. 

^ " Wickedly " were perhaps a better word, did it not make tlie ex- 
pression rather too contradictory. Antigone confesses her violation of 
the law, but justifies the means by the end. This is what is implied in 
otTia 7ravovpyr](7a<Ta, to which we have something similar in the phrase 
of " a pious fraud." 

* Olfioi TaXaivt]Q dicit hoc sensu, Hex mihi propter tuarn audaciam, 
Herm. 



16f» ANTIGONE. 86—120. 

Ant. Ah me! speak it out. You will be much more hateful 
silent, if you do not proclaim these things to all. 

Ism. You have a warm spirit in a chilling enterprise. 

Ant. But I know that I please those whom it most befits 
me to please. 

Ism. Ay, that is if you shall be able: but you long for 
things impossible. 

Ant. Therefore when I have not power I shall cease. 

Is\i. But it is not fitting to pursue at all what is impos- 
sible. 

Ant, If you will speak thus, you will be hated indeed by 
me, and will justly be hated, in addition, by him that is dead. 
But suffer me and my rash counsels, to endure this danger ; 
for I shall not suffer any thing so great, so as not to die 
gloriously. 

IsM. But, if it thus seem good to you, go ; and know this, 
that you go indeed unwise, but to your friends in truth a 
friend. 

Chorus. Beam of the sun\ that hath shone the fxirest light 
of all before to seven-gated Thebes, thou hast at length gleamed 
forth, oh eye of golden day ! coming above the channels of 
Dirce's streams, having driven a hasty onward fugitive with 
keener-urged rein the chief of the silver shiekP, who came 
from Argos with all his panoply, — whom^, shrilly clamouring, 
against our land, uprousedby a doubtful contest, Polynices, 
like an eagle hovered over the earth covered with the wing of 
white snow, with many a shield, and with plumed helms. And 
having taken his stand above our palaces, ravening all around 
with bloody spears the outlets of the seven gates, he departed 

^ Musgrave suggests, that the poetry of this beautiful passage will be 
heightened by supposing the Chorus to deliver their address to the sun 
immediately after his rise. The probability of it is confirmed by the 
splendour and abruptness of the apostrophe, and still more by the moment 
being marked when the rays of the luminary begin to stream over the 
fountains of Dirce. Tr. — But see Donaldson. B. 

"^ Adrastus, the king of Argos, and leader of the vanquished army on 
this occasion. 

^ The explanation of this passage is due to Mr. Jelf, in his Greek 
Grammar. He takes bv olka kK'Cchov together, treating o^ka adverbially. 
The advantage of this is, that we need not alter TloXvvf.iKr]Q to the geni- 
tive, as Wunder and others have done. The only awkwardness is in the 
hyperbaton. KXa^siv is used in the same sense in ^sch. Ag. 48, fxeyav 
tK Ov^ov KXdi^ovTtg"Apr}, TpoTrov alyvTnCjv. B. 



121—144. ANTIGONE. 167 

before that he had gorged his jaws with our blood, and pitchy- 
flame had seized the coronet of our towers : such a martial 
clatter was raised in his rear by the dragon his match, as 
could not be overcome^ For Jove beyond measure hates the 
vaunts of a haughty tongue ; and seeing them rushing on in a 
mighty stream, with the clangour of gold, and in the pride of 
armour^, he dashes down with brandished flame, him, who was 
already hastening to shout forth the strain of victory on the 
summits of the battlements^. And the bearer of the fire* fell 
shattered with rebound on earth, he who then raging with 
frantic spirit, blew upon us with the blasts of most hatefijl 
winds. And in one quarter a difierent fortune indeed pre- 
vailed, but mighty Mars leading the right wing^ and thicken- 
ing the fray, directed other evils against others. For seven 
leaders, marshalled against seven gates, equal against equal 
foes, left to Jove, the god of trophies^, their all-brazen arms, 
except the accursed two who sprung from one father and one 

^ Ve3"te: talis circa tergum (aquilse) intendebatur Martis strepiius, 
hostili draconi (Thebanis) tractaiu dijficilis, minime, tit Brunckius accepit, 
insuperahilis. Erf. — Hoc dicit: tantus a tergo concifatus est strepitus 
Martis, insuperabilis jiropter adversarium draconem. Herm. Tr. — I 
have translated according to Donaldson's view of the construction : toIoq 
Trar. 'Ap. a. vwra \_tov aleov'] avr. dpciK. Svax- trdO)]. Since the 
pursuing host had proved a match (avTiTraXoo) for the conquered Argives, 
so their pursuit was ^v(TX£(pa»ju.a, a thing hard to be overcome. B. 

2 The readings here are so uncertain, that I have preferred not attempt- 
ing any alteration. Donaldson^s idea of joining xpvcrov with ptvixari, 
and reading Kavaxy O'virepoTrXovg ("in a swollen torrent of gold advanc- 
ing, and proud in the rattle of armour," is his translation.) seem smore 
plausible than the other elucidations hitherto attempted. B. 

2 I should prefer "at the very edge of the battlements." i.e. as soon as 
he had set his foot upon them. B. 

"^ Capaneus, who threatened to give Thebes to the flames, and who was 
struck down by a thunderbolt while he attempted to scale the walls. 
There are magnificent descriptions of his fate in the Seven Chiefs against 
Thebes, of ^schylus, and of that most beautiful of plays, the Phcenissse 
of PJuripides. 

^ Ai:t,i6(jeipog, literally the right trace horse. The Greek chariots were 
drawn by four horses abreast, two harnessed to the pole and two in traces. 
As the turn in the race-course was usually to the left, (v. II. 23, 335.) the 
strongest horse was generally placed farthest to the right. Hermann has 
therefore justly observed : "Sic appellavit Martem Sophocles, ut impetu- 
osum, dextri equi more, significaret. Pariter ^schylus, quum fortem et 
validum vellet indicare, atipa(p6pQv KpiQCJvra TruiXov dixit Agam. 1651.2." 

^ Or, "Jove that turns the battle." 



168 ANTiaoNK. 145_189. 

mother, having raised against themselves their equally- 
victorious spears, both shared the lot of a mutual death. But 
since high-renowned Victory hath come with joys to compen- 
sate Thebe, the mistress of many a car, now indeed let us 
forget these wars^, and let us approach all the temples of the 
gods with dances that last through the live-long night ; and let 
Bacchus, shaker of the Theban land begin the revelry. But 
[cease,] for Creon, son of Menoeceus, the new king of this 
land, comes hither, upon these new casualties of heaven, 
revolving doubtless some anxious thought, since he hath 
announced this assembled conference of senators, sending for 
them by common proclamation. 

Creon. Ye men, the gods have again established the safety 
of the city, after having shaken it with many a wave : but I 
have sent for you by messengers to come apart from all, both 
knowing w^ell that you ever reverenced the might of the throne 
of La'ius, and again, when CEdipus directed the state, and 
when he perished, that ye remained with constant spirits 
towards his sons. Since therefore they have perished on the 
same day by a mutual death, striking and stricken in suicidal 
blood-guiltiness, I hold all the power and the throne by 
affinity of race with the dead. But it is impossible to ascertain 
the soul, and spirit, and judgment of evey man, before he 
shall be seen tried by office'^, and the administration of the 
laws. For whosoever, ruling a whole state, applies not to the 
best counsels, but from some fear restrains his tongue, appears 
to me, both now and formerly, to be the basest of men ; and 
whosoever esteems his friend more than his country, him I 
hold in no account. For I, let Jupiter who ever beholds all 
things know it, would neither be silent, seeing ruin, in place 
of safety, coming upon the citizens : nor would I ever make a 
man who was hostile to my country, a friend to myself, know- 
ing this, that it is our country which preserves us, and that, 

1 I am not sure but the construction of this passage proposed by Erfurdt 
is better than Brunck's: "tCjv vvv non videtur ad ttoXejxojv pertinere: 
nam et languidum foret, nee dicitur tK9sa9ai Xriafioavviqv, sed O'saOai. 
Quare jungenda censeo verba sic: Ik TroXsfiojv, post bellum, OeaOe 
\r]<Tfio<Tvvav tuiv vvv, obliviscamini prsesentia, i.e. funera fratrum." 

2 'Apx*) civSpa dei^ei, from which Creon borrows his maxim, was an 
old proverbial saying, attributed originally to Bias of Priene, one of the 
seven sages of Greece. 



190—215. ANTIGONE. 169 

Bailing in her unfoundered, we make friends*. By such laws 
as these I will exalt this city, and now I have proclaimed to 
the citizens things akin to these concerning the sons of QEdi- 
pus. Eteocles indeed, who fell fighting for this city, bearing 
the palm in everything with his spear, I have commanded them 
both to enshroud in the tomb, and to consecrate to him all the 
honours that fall to the lot of the gallant dead below. But 
him again, the brother of this man, I mean Polynices, who, on 
his return from exile, wished to consume utterly with flames 
the country of his fathers, and gods of that country, and 
wished to glut himself with kindred blood, and having enslaved 
the citizens, to lead them away, — him it has been proclaimed 
to this city, that neither any one shall lay with rites in the 
tomb, nor wail over him, but leave him unburied, and behold 
his body devoured and mangled by birds and dogs. Such is 
my will; and never from me at least shall the wicked have 
honour in preference to the just : but whosoever displays good 
will to this city, shall, both in life and death, be equally 
honoured by me. 

Ch. The same things please me as please thee*, Creon, son 
of Menoeceus, concerning the one who was an enemy, and the 
other, who was a friend to the city : but it resides' in you to 
use any law, both concerning the dead, and concerning us, as 
many as live*. 

Cr. See that ye be now guardians of the edict*. 

^ Creon, though an ahsolute monarch, dreaded the unpopularity of his 
sacrilegious edict. He therefore endeavours, by a great many plausible 
expressions of patriotism and integrity, to do away with unfavourable 
impressions in the minds of the citizens, and to extort from their fear an 
approbation of his conduct. 

2 Soi nonad apkaKsi, sed ad to. avrd refertur, subaudito alio pronomine 
fiL Constructio est, apkaKU fis rd avrd aot. Brunck. 

^ Dindorf reads ■Kavri ttov irdptari aoi, which Wunder follows. Do- 
naldson iravTaxov TrdpeaTi <roi. B. 

■* The Chorus are as complying and servile as Creon could desire. Later 
in the play they rather change their tone; but is a pity that they, whose 
office it was to deliver the lessons of morality and virtue, should have at 
all been represented out of their natural character. It has been suggested 
by some that the poet meant to gratify his countrymen by placing their 
enemies, the Thebans, in the contemptible light of slaves. If this reason 
be true, we can only regret that he was induced, by such an unworthy 
motive, to deform one of his finest productions by a disagreeable incon- 
iistency. 

6 TTuig av for o)£ dv is the emendation of Dindorf. 



170 ANTIGONE. 216—236. 

Ch. Impose this on some younger one to bear. 

Cr. But there are watchers of the corpse, at lea^t, pre- 
pared. 

Ch. What farther than this in truth would you yer, 
enjoin'? 

Cr. Not to give way to those that disobey this mandate. 

Ch. There is no one so fooHsh as to desire to die. 

Cr. And in truth this at least is the reward ; but gain has 
oft, by means of hope, destroyed men. 

Messenger'^. O king, I will not indeed say that I come 
panting with speed, having lifted up a nimble foot, for I had 
many baitings of thought, wheeling myself round in the way 
with the view of returning, and my mind holding a dialogue 
with me, said many things. " Wretch, why goest thou where 
coming you shall suffer punishment? Yet, wretch, do you 
stop? And if Crcon shall learn these things from some other 
man, how in truth shall you not smart for it?"' Revolving 
such thoughts, I made out my journey tardy with delay^, and 
thus a short way is made long. In the end, however, the 
resolution prevailed to come hither ; and to you, though I say 
nothing agreeable, I will nevertheless speak, for I come cling- 
ing fast to the expectation that I shall suffer nothing else 
except what is fated*. 

^ Hermann defends aW({j, rendering it: "cur ergo etiam alii hoc man- 
datum cupias?" "Nempe," respondit ille, " ne quis negligi imperia mea 
sinat," according to the old scholiast. B. 

" This"Ayye\oe or <&i)Xa^, (for editors disagree about his designation,) 
is a very prating and impertinent sort of person. Few tyrants would have 
"contented themselves with saying, wc XaXrjjxa ^r)\ov tKTn^vKog el, but 
would have been much more likely to have chopped off his head for his 
pains. Tr. — I cannot help thinking that Mitchell, Donaldson, and others, 
have much exaggerated the comic powers of this messenger-guard. Do- 
naldson's paraphrase (for translation is out of the question) introduces so 
many modern conceits, that Sophocles is utterly forgotten. B. 

2 Dindorf and others adopt the reading ax^y raxvQ, a frigid antithesis, 
condemned by Wander. B. 

■* Some commentators, especially Mitchell, find something very witty 
in this " touch of fatalism, coming from such a presence." Supposing it 
were so, there would be nothing very remarkable or entertaining in the 
guard talking like every one else in every extant Greek drama I But the 
fact is, TO ji6p(7i[.iov simply means " death," expressed by an euphemism, 
for that the witty (si Diis placet!) guard had made up his mind to the 
worst, is evident from vs. 228. Cf. Homer II. xv. 613. xxii. 13. Pindar 
01. II. 18. JEsch, Suppl. 47. Sept. c. Th. 263. B. 



237—263 ANTIGONE. 171 

Ck. But what is it from which you feel this faint-hearted- 
ness^ ? 

Mess. I wish fii'st to tell what regards myself; for I neither 
did the deed, nor did I see who was the perpetrator, nor ought 
I justly to fall into any mischief. 

Cb,. You feel your way carefully, at all events, and fence it 
all round ; but you seem about to signify some new^s. 

Mess. For dangers in good truth create much fear. 

Cr. Will you never speak, then, and then take yourself 
off? 

Mess. And now indeed I tell you. Some one has gone, 
having just buried the dead body, and having sprinkled the 
dry dust over the skin, and having performed the proper 
rites. 

Cr. Wha^ say you? what mortal dared this? 

]\lf-:ss. I know not; for there was neither stroke of axe, nor 
aught cast up by the spade, but the earth was firm and the 
soil unbroken, nor tracked by ruts of wheels, but the worker 
was one who left no trace'. And when the first watchman of 
the day discovers it to ns, painful wonder was felt by all. For 
he indeed had disappeared, yet not enclosed in a tomb, but a 
slight covering of dust was over him, as if bestowed by some 
one avoiding the pollution^; and there appeared no marks of 
a wild beast or dog coming and tearing him. Then revilings 
were uttered against each other, watchman charging his fellow, 
and it would have ended in blows, nor was there any one to 
prevent them ; for each individual was the perpetrator, and no 
one was convicted, but put in the plea of ignorance*. And we 

1 Cf. (Ed. Tyr. 319. ri d' Icjtiv ; wg dBvfxoq d<y{kiii\v9aQ. B. 

^ The messenger wishes to clear himself by insinuating, that it was not 
any mortal power that had performed these operations. The Chorus, 
when he concludes, expresses the same opinion : but Creon was not to be 
so easily deceived. 

3 Tiie person who passed a dead body without bestowing a handful of 
dust on it, was held by the ancient superstition to be {ivay)]Q) polluted. 
Archytas, in the well-known ode of Horace, enjoins the mariner to observe 
the pious rite : — 

Quanquam festinas, non est mora longa, licebit 
Injecto ter pulvere curras. 

* This is Donaldson's explanation, taking (pevyuv in its legal sense, of 
being defendant. Dindorf and Wunder read aXX" t(ptvye Trag to fii], 
scil. i^iipyaafievog tlvai. B. 



172 ANTIGONE. 264—305. 

were ready to lift masses of red-hot iron in our hands', and to 
pass through fire, and to appeal to the gods by oath, that we 
neither did it, nor were conscious to any one who de\4sed or 
executed the deed. In the end, when there was nothing 
gained by our inquiries, some one speaks, who made us all 
bend our heads to earth through fear : for we knew not how 
to object, nor how doing it we should prosper ; and his words 
were, that the deed should be reported to you, and not con- 
cealed. This proposal prevailed; and the lot seizes on me, 
unhappy, to gain this prize ; and I am present, I know, 
unwilling and unwelcome, for no one loves the bearer of evil 
tidings. 

Ch. My mind, O king, is from long since deliberating 
whether this deed be wrought by heaven. 

Cr. Cease ! before you fill me with anger, lest you be 
discovered at the same time a fool and a dotard; for you 
say what is intolerable, saying that the gods have provident 
care concerning this corpse. Whether, highly honouring him 
as a benefactor, have they buried him who came to set on fire 
their pillared temples, and to destroy the consecrated gifts, 
their land and laws? or do you see the gods honouring the 
wicked? It is not so; but the citizens bearing these things ill, 
even formerly murmured against me, secretly shaking the 
head, nor did they stoop the mane, as they ought, beneath the 
yoke, so as to submit to me. I well know that these men, 
corrupted by bribes from them, have done this. For no such 
evil institution as money has arisen to men. It lays waste 
cities^ ; it drives away men from their homes ; it seduces and 
perverts the honest inclinations of mortals to turn to base ac- 
tions ; and it has taught men to learn villanies, and to know 
the impiety of every deed. But as many as for hire have done 
this, have in time wrought out their fate, so as to suffer 
punishment; and if Jove still has reverence from me^, know 
this well, and under an oath I say it to you, if you do not, 

1 This is an early allusion to the use of the ordeals, afterwards so pre- 
valent in Europe during the daik ages. There are many miraculous 
escapes from both fire and water detailed in the monkish histories of our 
own country. 

* *' Diffidit urbium 

Portas vir Macedo, et submit semulos 
Reges muneribus. — Hor. III. 16. 
^ The scholiast explains this, d rifiio Kai cbISu) tov Ala, Kai /i?) iTrtopffw 
avTov. 



306—335. ANTIGONE. 173 

discovering him wlio with his own hand made the tomb, pro- 
duce him to my eyes, death alone shall not siiiEce for you, 
before that, hung up alive, ye make manifest this insult, in 
order that, knowing whence gain is to be drawn, you may for 
the future seize it, and may learn that it is not fitting to wish 
to make profit from every thing; for by unjust gains you will 
see more ruined than preserved. 

Mess. Will you grant me to say something, or, turning, 
shall I thus depart ? 

Ce. Do you not know even now how disagreebly you 
speak ? 

Mess. Are you pained in the ears or in the mind ? 

Ce. Why ? do you explore my grief where it lies ? 

Mess. He who did it pains thy mind, and I thine ears. 

Ce. Alas me ! how plainly you are by nature a babbler^ 

Mess, I, at all events, am not the man who did this deed. 

Ce. Yes, and that for money too betraying youi* life. 

Mess. Alas ! it is hard that to whom at least there are 
suspicions, his suspicions should be false. 

Ce. Talk big now about suspicion ; but if ye do not show 
to me those who did this, ye will confess that wicked gains 
work ruin. 

Mess. But may he by all means indeed be discovered : 
but be he taken or not, for fortune will decide this, it is not 
likely you shall see me coming hither again. And now, pre- 
served beyond my expectation and opinion, I owe many 
thanks to the gods'*. 

Choetjs. Many are the mighty' things, and nought is 
more mighty than man. He even sails beyond the sea, when 
whitened into foam with the ^^dntry south wind's blasts, 
passing amid"* the billows that roar around ; and the supreme of 

^ I see no reason for changing XaXrifxa to dXrjua. The former word is 
somewhat like the KpovvoxvTpo\i]paiog of Aristoph. Eq. 89. B. 

2 Mitchell observes, " the Phylax retires, it is to be presumed, amid 
much laughter on the part of the audience." If so, their risible powers 
must have been below the standard of the New Cut. An audience so 
easily excited to risibility would be invaluable to many a modern farce- 
writer. B. 

3 Thus Donaldson. A late translator has ** awful"! B. 

* This seems the easiest way of translating vtto, which is used of the 
vessel cleaving its way through the waves, so as to be partly hidden beneath 
them. B. 



174 ANTIGONE. 336—356. 

divinities immortal, undecaying Earth, he furrows, his ploughs 
circling^ from year to year, turning up her soil with the off- 
spring of the steed*. And ensnaring the brood of light- 
minded birds^, he bears them away as his prey, and the 
tribes of the monsters of the wild, and the marine race of 
the deep in the inwoven meshes of his nets, he, all-inventive 
man ; and he masters by his devices the tenant of the fields, 
the mountain-ranging beast, and he will bring under* the 
neck-encircling yoke, the shaggy-maned horse, and the un- 
tameable mountain bull. And he hath taught himself lan- 
guage and lofty wisdom", and the customs of civic law, and 

^ Although iXXonEV(jJv may refer to the f3ov<7Tpo(pr}cbv movement in 
ploughing, I still have strong suspicion that we should read apSriov or, 
as others accent it, apoToJv, "■ as seed-times return year by year." So 
Hesiod, tpy. 448. Gaisf. ?/ t apoToio re (rriixa(l)kpet, kuI x^^H-^'^^i^ ojprjv 
AuKvvu 6fil3pt]pov. Soph. Trach. 69. rbv TrapeXOavr' dporov, and 825, 
dujOsKarog dporog. See also Comm. on Virgil, Ed. I. 70, " Post ali- 
quot... aristas." That the verb may be rightly thus used is easily seen 
from the interpretations given by some of the ancients to the celebrated 
passage of Plato's Timaeus, p. 530, E. Lsera. cf. Ruhnk. on Tim. Lex., 
p. 69 sqq., and more particularly Simplicius on Arist. de Coel. F. 125. B. 
The sense will thus correspond to the Homeric TreoLTeXXofJLSvojv iviavruiv, 
II. II. 551, VIII. 404. B. 

2 I cannot resist giving my readers this sentence from the translation 
of Adams: " He traverses the hoary main in stormy winds, by the rattling 
tumours of swollen sails, and pierces the supreme incorruptible land of 
the immortal gods, year after year returning to plough it with horse-kind." 
P. 189. 

^ Kov(l>ov6(ov. Libri omnes Kovcpoveojv, mendose. Brunck. In spite 
of this authoritative judgment we are inclined to think the " libri omnes" 
are correct. Wakefield approves of Kov<pov80Jv in his notes to Lucretius, 
VI. 743. and renders it, " celeriter navigantium," a meaning much more 
applicable to the passage, and consistent with the general spirit of the 
Chorus. An epithet indicative of the speed of the birds, heightens the 
difficulty which man's power has to overcome ; and we find in the other 
instances, that the poet has made a most judicious choice of expressions 
with a view to this effect. Tr. — The gloss of the schol. Kovfojg Kal 
TaxiojQ (pipoixkvojv, evidently cannot belong but to Kov<povkiiJV, which 
Wunder has not perceived. B. 

^ I have translated vwd^ETai, but the conjecture of Franz, oxiJ^d^STai, 
is well supported by Donaldson, though I do not see the necessity for 
reading Z,vy^v. B. 

^ I have followed Hesychius in the explanation of rivefjoev, as simply 
meaning v<pr]X6v, fierkcopov. Brunck has it, " sublimium rerum scien- 
tiam," which he copies from the rrepi twv fiereujpojv (l)tXo(ro<piav of the 
scholiast. Erfurdt and Hermann understand it as expressive of the speed 



357—394. ANTIGONE. J 75 

to avoid the cold and stormy arrows of uncomfortable frosts. 
Finding a way through, every thing without a resource he 
comes upon nothing in respect to the future^ Of the grave 
alone he shall not introduce escape ; but yet he hath devised 
remedies against baffling disease. Having beyond belief a 
certain inventive skill of art, he at one time advances to evil 
and at another time to good. Observing^ the laws of the 
land, and the plighted justice of heaven, he is high in the 
state ; but an outcast from the state is he, with whomsoever 
that which is not honourable resides by reason of audacity ; 
neither may he dwell with me, nor have sentiments like mine, 
who acts thus 

1 am in doubt at this strange prodigy ! How knowing 
her shall I deny this to be the maiden Antigone ? O wretched 
woman, and sprung from a wretched father, Oedipus, what 
at all means this ? Sui-e they do not lead you, at least, dis- 
obeying the mandates of the king, and having seized you in 
the frantic attempt ? 

Mess. This is she that have wrought the deed. Her we 
found employed in the burial — ^but where is Creon ? 

Ch. Retui'ning from his palace ; he is passing out to meet 
the opportunity. 

Cr. What is it? What chance thus coinciding has hap- 
pened^ ? 

Mess. O king, nothing is to be disavowed by mortals, for 
later opinion gives the lie to the judgment; since I would con- 
fidently have maintained, that I would have been slow of ever 
returning hither, on account of your threats*, in whose storm 
I was formerly endangered. But, for the joy which is -with- 
out and beyond the hopes resembles in magnitude no other 
pleasure, I come, tliough pledged to the contrary by oaths, 

of thought : but Benedict disagrees with them, for the following reason : 
" Sensus sublimes docendo quidem instillari possunt humanse luenti^ non 
autem cogitationum celeritas, quse major sive minor ex indole cujusque 
naturali dependet." 

^ This is Donaldson's interpretation: ''with plans for all things, plan- 
less in nothing, meets he the future !" B. 

2 yepaiojv is the ingenious conjecture of Musgrave, approved by 
Donaldson. Wunder's Trtpaipujv is absurd. B. 

2 Donaldson, "what hap holds sortance with my coming forth ?" B. 
■* ralg aalc aTreiXalg, propter minas tuas. Vide ad (Ed. Col. 1280* 

Musgrave. 



17^ ANTIGONE. 395—432. 

bringing this virgin, who was detected adorning the tomb. 
The lot here was not shaken, but this is my prize\ none 
other's. And now, O king, taking her as you please, yourself 
question and convict her; but I freed am justly entitled to 
get rid of these evils. 

Cr. In what way do you bring her ? whence taking her ? 

Mess. She was burying the man : you know all. 

Cr. Do you both understand and correctly deliver what 
you tell ? 

Mess. Having at least seen her in the act of burying the 
dead body which you interdicted. Do I relate these things 
clearly and plainly ? 

Cr. And how was she seen and found taken in the act? 

Mess The circumstances was of this nature : — For when 
we came, threatened with those dreadful torments by you, 
having swept away all the dust which covered the corpse, and 
having well stripped the clammy body, we took our seat to 
the windward of the top of the hill, having avoided the stench 
from the body least it should reach us% each keenly rousing 
his fellow with bitter reproaches if any one should be sparing 
of this toil. These things continued for so long a time, until 
the brilliant orb of the sun took its place in the middle of the 
firmament, and the heat was burning, and then suddenly a 
storm having raised a whirlwind from the ground, a heaven- 
sent pest, fills the plain, watering all the tresses of the wood- 
lands ; and the mighty air was filled ; and having closed our 
eyes we endured the heaven-sent plague. And this having 
departed in length of time, the maiden is seen in view, and 
she is wailing forth the bitter note of the plaintive bird, like 
when it beholds the bed of its empty nest deprived of its 
young. Thus also she, when she beholds the dead body bare, 
burst forth into strains of grief, and baneful cui-ses did she 
imprecate on those who wrought the deed, and straightway 
she brings the dry dust in her hands, and from the well- 
fashioned brazen urn high-raised aloft with thrice-poured liba- 
tions she crowns the dead. And we seeing it rushed 

1 All lucky and unexpected gain was ascribed to the kindness of tlie god 
Hermes; and the word 'ipnatov refers to this attribute, and is derived 
from his name. 

" Constructio est: Trs^tvyoreg oafirjv drc' avTov, fxi) (Sakoi, fugientes 
odureni ejus, ne nos feriret. Musgrave. 



433—457. ANTIGONE. 1?7 

and inimediately seized her, not in the least appalled ; 
and we accused her both of the former and the preseiic 
doings, and denial of none of them was attempted. But this 
to me at least is at the same time pleasing and painful: 
for to escape from evils myself is most pleasing, but to bring 
friends into misfortune is painful. But it appertains to me 
by nature to consider all these things less important than my 
ovm. safety. 

Cr. You, you bending your head to the ground, do you 
confess or do you deny having done this .^ 

Ant. I both confess I did it, and I do not deny that I did 
not. 

Cr. You may take yourself off M'here you please\ free 
from the heavy charge. But do you tell me not at length, 
but briefly, did you know the proclamation forbidding this^. 

Ant. I knew it. And why should I not? for it was plain. 

Cr. And have you dared then to transgress these laws ? 

Ant. For it was not Jove who heralded these commands^, 
nor Justice, that dwells with the gods below the earth, who 
established these laws among men; nor did I think your 
proclamations had so much power so as being a mortal to 
transgress the unwritten and immovable laws of the gods*. 
For not now, at least, or of yesterday, but eternally they live, 
and no one knows from what time they had their being. I 

^ Addressing the Messenger. 

2 Addressing Antigone. 

2 This speech of Antigone contains a fine expression of high-toned 
feeling and virtuous resolution. Nothing can surpass the sublimity with 
•which she alludes to the power of principle, and eternity of duration in 
the laws of heaven ; and the touching manner in which she consoles 
herself for her untimely doom, is the noblest picture of devoted heroism 
triumphing over nature and the weakness of woman. Tr. — This passage 
has been frequently quoted and applied by other authors, thus Philostra- 
tus, de vita ApoUon. N. 38, Trpbg yap rd 'Nspiovog icrjpvyixara Si wv 
l^tipyoL (l)i\o(TO(piav, tartv t'jfjLlv to tou 2o^OKX£OJig ian[5e7ov, " ov yap 
TL fioL Zei'Q fjv 6 Kr]pvS,ag race," ovCs Moucrai, Kai 'AttoXXwi/ Xoyiog. 
On laws as sprung from the gods, of. CEd. Tyr. 867; Plato Legg. I. 1 ; 
and Minos, p. 46. Dion Chrys. Or. i. p. 56. Cicero Tusc. Q. ii, 13, 
on the dypapoi vofioi, cf. Aristot. Rhet. 1. 10 and 13. B. 

^ This may either refer, as I have taken it, to Creon, or to Antigone 
herself: "^so as being a mortal I should venture to transgress these 
laws." There is this objection, however, to the latter mode, that virtp- 
Tokx^iv does not so properly mean violare, as superare, vincere. Vide 
Benedict. Obs. 117. 

N 



178 ANTIGONE. 458—495. 

was not going through fear of the spirit of any man to pay 
the penalty of their violation to the gods. For I knew I 
must die, (and why not ?) even though you had not proclaimed 
it, and if I die before my day I account it gain ; for who- 
soever lives like me in many sorrows, how does not he by 
death obtain advantaged Thus to me, at least, to meet with 
this fate, the sorrow is nothing : but if I had suffered him 
who was born of my mother to lie in death an unburied 
corpse, in that case I would have sorrowed: in this I sorrow 
not. But if I seem to you now to happen to do what is 
foolish, I merely incur the imputation of folly from a fool . 

Ch. The spirit of the daughter shows itself stern from a 
stern father, and she knows not to yield to misfortune. 

Cr. But know in truth that too stern spirits bend the most: 
and you will most frequently see the hardest steel, forged in 
the fire till brittle, shivered and broken ; and I have known 
high-mettled horses disciplined by a small bit ; for it is not 
right for him to have proud thoughts whosoever is the slave 
of others. She indeed then first learned to be guilty of inso- 
lence, transgressing the ordained laws ; and this, when she 
had done it, is the second insult, to glory in such deeds, and 
to laugh having done them. In sooth, then, I am no man, but 
she a man, if this victory shall accrue to her without hurt. 
But whether she be sprung from my sister, or one more near 
of blood than all beneath the protection of our household god'^, 
she and her sister shall not escape the most wretched fate ; 
for I charge her equally with having planned the measures 
respecting this burial. And summon her ; for just now I saw 
her within raving, not possessed of her senses ; and the mind 
of those who unjustly de..se anything in the dark, is wont 
to be prematurely detected in its fraud'. I indeed at least 

^ Tov Z,yv dt \virpS)Q Kptiaaov Isri KaTdavtiv. Eurip. Troad. v. 632. 

2 The meaning of the phrase tov Travrbg Zrjvbg 'EpKsiov can only be 
expressed, as the reader will easily perceive, by a periphrasis. The altar 
of Hercsean Jove stood in the court of every house; and he was wor- 
shipped, as his name imports, in the light of its guardian and defender. 
Tr. — But surely Zrjvbg epKeiov means nothing more than " our whole 
house," as " penates" would be used in Latin. B. 

^ KXoTrevg. Conjungo cum TrpocrOev yprjcrQai, ut constructio sit: 6 S^ 
Qvfibg TU)V iv gkoto^ firjcav opQCJg rsxvojfisviijv, (piXu TrpoaQtv kKottivi^ 
yprjaOai. " Mens autem coram, qui in tenebris pravi aliquid moliuntur, 
Boletprius malefica convinci, i. e maleficii convinci " Musgrave. *' Mens 



496—515. ANTIGONE. 179 

hate when any one, discovered in guilt, may then wish to gloss 
it over. 

Ant. Do you wish anything more than taking me to put 

me to death ? 

Cr. I indeed wish nothing more. Having this I have 
all. 

Ant. Why in truth do you delay ? since to me none of 
your words are pleasing, nor may they ever be pleasing ; and 
in like manner also, to you mine are naturally displeasing. 
And yet whence could I have gained a glory of higher renown, 
than by laying my own brother in the tomb ? It would be 
said that this was approved of by all these, did not fear seal 
their tongues. But regal power is fortunate in many other 
things, and in this, that it is allowed to say and to do what 
it pleases. 

Cr. You alone of these Cadmeans view it in this light. 

Ant. These also view it in the same light, but for you they 
close the lips. 

Cr. And are not you ashamed if you have sentiments dif- 
ferent from theirs ? 

Ant. No, for it is nothing shameful to revere those who 
sprung from the same womb. 

Cr. Was not he also your brother who fell on the op- 
posite side ? 

Ant. He was my brother from one mother and the same 
father^. 

Cr. How then do you award an honom- that is impious 
to him ? 

Ant. The dead below the earth will not testify this. 

eorum, qui aliquid sceleris clam moliuntur, quum alioqui sit illius occul- 
tatrix, solet tamen prius deprehendi." H. Stephanus. This latter expla- 
nation is obscurum per obscurius with a vengeance. 

^ " He teas. The original is, 'he was my brother by the same father, 
and by the same mother.' — The Greek writers, though generally concise, 
are sometimes very prolix, as in the passage before us, where the senti- 
ment takes up a whole line in the original, and is better expressed in 
these two words of the translation." Francklin. Tiiis notable person, 
since he had not the taste to perceive the elegance of the original, may 
make himself as happy as he pleases with his two monosyllables. After 
having the presumption to think himself qualified to improve upon So- 
phocles, we cannot help suggesting that he might have devised something 
much more sublime than the subject of his self-congratulatory comment, 
the boasted he was. 

n2 



180 ANTIGONE. 516—543. 

Cr. He will, if you honour him equally with the im- 
pious. 

Ant. For not in aught a slave, but my brother he fell. 

Cr. Laying waste at least this land, but the other resisting 
in its defence. 

Ant. Still the grave at least desires equal laws. 

Cr. But not the good to obtain an equal share with the 
bad. 

Ant, Who knows if these things are held holy below ? 

Cr. Never at all is the enemy, not even in death, a friend^ 

Ant. I have been formed by nature not to join in hatred, 
but to join in love. 

Cr. Going now below, if you must love, love them ; but while 
I live, a woman shall not rule. 

Ch. And in truth before the gates here comes Ismene, 
letting fall the tears of a sister's love, and the cloud on her 
brow bedewing her beauteous face, mars the glow of her 
cheek. 

Cr. But you, who in my house, like a viper, stealing on 
without my notice, sucked my blood, and I was not aware 
that I nursed two fiends and traitors to subvert my throne, 
come, tell me, do you too confess that you shared in this 
burial, or do you deny the knowledge of it ? 

Ismene. I did the deed, if she also says so, and I par- 
ticipate in and bear the blame*. 

Ant. But justice will not permit you to do this, since you 
neither were willing, nor did I make you my partner. 

Ism. But in your evils I am not ashamed to make myself a 
fellow- voyager of your sufferings. 

Ant. Whose deed it is. Hades and those below the earth 
are conscious : but I do not love a friend that loves with 
words. 

^ Euripides, following a much more natural and amiable sentiment than 
this expressed by Creon, makes Polynices with his last breath speak 
kindly of his brother: 

'^iXog yap sx^pbg lysvtT, aXX' ofiwg <j>i\og. Phcenissae, 1445. 

2 Ismene, whose conduct and sentiments we have always hitherto found 
disgusting, continues to appear here in a still more unfavourable light. 
She would fain take the seeming credit of generosity, and yet at the very 
first moment she insinuates her innocence, or at least extorts from Anti- 
gone, by her saving clause, an acknowledgment to this effect. 



544—572. ANTIGONE. 181 

Ism. Do not, sister, deprive me of the honour of dying with 
you, and of paying the rites to the dead. 

Ant. Do not you die along with me, nor make yours what 
you did not touch. I will suffice to die. 

Ism. And what life is dear to me bereft of you ? 

AisT. Ask Creon ; for you court him. 

IsM. Why do you pain me with this, being yourself nothing 
benefited by it ? 

Ant. Yet I am grieved, in truth, though I deride you. 

Ism. In what else could I now benefit you ? 

Ant. Preserve yourself: I do not grudge your escape. 

IsM. Woe is me unhappy ! And do I fail to share your 
fate? 

Ant. For you indeed choose to live, but I to die. 

Ism. But not at least without my warning being addressed. 

Ant. You seemed wise indeed to some, but I to others*. 

Ism. And, in truth, the guilt is equal to us. 

Ant. Be confident? you indeed live, but my soul has long 
since died, so as to aid the dead. 

Cr. I say, as to these two virgins, that the one has just 
appeared mad, and the other from the time she was first 
born. 

Ism. For never, O king, docs the mind which may have 
originally sprung, remain the same to those in misfortune, but 
is changed. 

Ck. To you, at any rate, it did, when you chose to work 
evil with the evil. 

Ism. For how is life to be endured by me alone, without 
her? 

Cr. But do not say her^ for she is no longer. 

Ism. But will you kill the bride of your own son ? 

Cr. For the furrows of other women may be ploughed. 

Ism. Not so, at least, as troth was plighted 'twixt him and 
her. 

Cr. I hate bad wives for my sons. 

Ism. O dearest Haemon, how your father disallows thee'^ ! 

* I prefer taking roTg juev, ro7g Z\ of persons, not things, not with 
Xoyoic understood. B. 

2 This verse is by Boeck, Wunder, and others, rightly assigned to 
Antigone. But Schlegel, p. 105, and Bulwer, Athens, V, 4, 7. prefer 
giving it to Ismene. B. 



182 jtTiaoNE. 573—612. 

Cr. You at least give me too much trouble, both you and 
the man-iage you talk of. 

Ism. What, will you deprive your own son of her? 

Cr. The grave was destined to put a stop to this marriage. 

Ism. 'Tis destined, as it seems, that she shall die. 

Cr. E'en as thou thinkest, so I^ Make no more delay'^, 
but conduct her, ye slaves, within : and from this time it is 
fitting that these women should not be left at liberty, for 
even the bold fly, when they already see the close of life 
near. 

Ch'. Blessed are they, to whom there is a life that tastes not 
of misfortune ; for to M'homsoever their house shall have been 
shaken by heaven, nought of mischief is wanting, lurking 
through the fulness of their race ; like as when beneath the 
sea-traversing malignact Thracian blasts a billow runs over 
the marine darkness, it stirs up from the deep the black and 
storm-tost shingle, and the wave-lashed shores moan with 
the roar. I see the ancient sufferings of the house of Labdacus 
following on the sufferings of the dead: nor does one generation 
quit the race*, but some one of the gods keeps felling it, nor 
has it a moment's release. For now what light Avas spread 
above the last root in the house of (Edipus, again the death- 
ful dust', of the infernal powers sweeps it away, and frenzy of 
words, and the mad fury of the mind. O Jove ! what daring 
pride of mortals can control thy power, which neither the 
sleep which leads the imiverse to old age*, ever seizes, nor 
the unwearied months of the gods ? Through unwasting time, 
enthroned in might, thou dwellest in the glittering blaze of 
heaven ! For the future, and the instant, and the past, this 

^ So Wunder : *' ut tibi quidem videtur a me decretum esse, ita mihi 
videtur." B. 

2 Tpi/3ac is governed by ttouXts or dyers, or some such word under- 
stood. Musgrave very well remarks, that there is no more fitting occa- 
sion for an ellipsis, than when the haste of an angry man is to be 
painted. 

2 This Chorus is enriched with some of the most sublime imageiy and 
conception to be met with in any poet. The lines, in particular, which 
celebrate the power of Jupiter, are grand beyond expression. 

'^ "Atone for, or pay the reckoning of the race." 

^ See Donaldson. B. 

^ In Liddell's Lexicon, the conjecture of Reimer, Travrdyripojg, " never 
growing old," is approved. It certainly seems simpler than the irayKpa- 
Ti^Q of Donaldson. B. 



613—655. ANTIGONE. 183 

law will suffice : nothing comes to the life of mortals far re- 
moved at least from calamity^. For much-deceitful hope is 
a gratification to many, and to many the beguilements of 
light-minded love ; but ruin advances on man, all-ignorant, 
before that he touch his foot with the warm fire. In wisdom 
hath an illustrious saying been by some one set forth : That 
evil on a time appears good to him, whose mind the god 
hurries on to judgment, and that he lives for a brief space 
apart from its visitation. 

But here is Haemon, the youngest by birth of your children. 
Does he come, lamenting the fate of his betrothed bride 
Antigone, grieving at being defrauded of the nuptials ? 

Cr. We shall soon know better than prophets. O my son! 
having then heard the ratified decree against your bride, do you 
come, raging against your father ? or are we, in whatever 
way acting, dear to you ? 

H^MON. Father, I am thine; and you, having good 
counsels for me, which I will follow, direct me aright. For 
no marriage will justly be considered greater with me than 
you. while guiding me well. 

Cr. For thus, O my son, it is fitting to feel in your breast 
that everything takes its place behind the judgment of a 
father ; for on account of this men pray that begetting 
children, they may have them obedient in their house, in 
order that they may both repay an enemy with eviP, and 
honour a friend equally with their father. But whosoever 
begets useless children, what would you say that he did else 
than engender toils to himself, and much laughter to his 
enemies ? Do not you now, my son, for the sake of a woman, 
ever drive away your senses by pleasure, knowing that this 
is a chilling embrace, a bad wife, the partner of your bed at 
home. For what worse ulcer could there be than a false 
friend ? But, spurning her as an enemy, suffer this virgin 
to marry some one in the shades. For since I have clearly 

^ This is very corrupt. Donaldson would read: vSfiog od' avcpbg 
aTcrav. " Qvaribv fSioTtiJ TrafXTroXig elaiv ara', " la all the life of mortals 
mischief in every state her franchise claims." B. 

- There is a strona: resemblance in this to the sentiments, not to say 
the language, of the Psalmist: " Like as arrows in the hand of the giant, 
even so are young children : happy is the man that hath his quiver full of 
them ; they shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in 
the gate." Ps. cxxvii. 5, 6. 



*84 ANTioorrss. 656-690. 

discovered her alone of all the city acting with disobedience, 
I will not prove myself false to my countiy, but will put 
her to death. Let her therefore invoke Jove, the god of 
kindred; for if I rear those who are my natural kin dis- 
orderly, much more shall I thus rear those who are not con- 
nected with me : for whosoever is a good man in his own 
family, will also be shown to be just in the state ; but who- 
soever acts with violence in transgressing the laws, or thinks 
to command those in power, it is impossible that he should 
meet with praise from me. But whom the city may appoint, 
him it is proper to obey in small things or in great, just or 
imjust^; and this man I am confident would rule well and 
would be willing to be well ruled, and in the tempest of the 
spear would remain at his post a just and brave companion in 
arms. There is no greater bane than anarchy ; it destroys cities, 
lays houses low, and in the combat with the spear scatters 
to the rout'^ : but discipline preserves the most of those who 
are under rule. There mus thus be aid given to those that 
govern, and we must by no means yield to a woman : for it 
Avere better, if necessary, to be vanquished by a man, and 
we would not be called inferior to women. 

Cii. To us indeed, if we are not misled by old age, you 
seem to speak wisely concerning what you speak. 

H^. Father, the gods implant wisdom in man, the highest 
of all possessions as many as exist. But I should neither be 
able nor know to express that you do not say these things 
aright. For another indeed it might be proper^. For your 
interest, then, I have been accustomed to consider every 
thing that any one says or does, or has to blame : for your 
eye terrifies a common citizen from using those words which 

^ On this modest idea of sovereignty cf. ^sch. Choeph. 78. diKaia 
Kai fiTj S'lKaia, fir) Trp'tTTOVT O-Qxaigjiiov, ^'la (pepofisvwv aivkaai, iriKpbv 
fptvatv (TTvyog Kparovay. Seneca Med. 195. *' ^Equum at que iniquum 
regis imperium feras." Plaut. Amphit. I. 1, 19. B. 

2 Karapp. TpoTrag, i. e. Kar. ioart TpoircLQ dvai. See Wunder. B. 

3 Such is the interpretation of Heath: " Fieri quidem id possit ab alio 
(qui filius non sit tuus) et quidem non indecore." Hsemon delicately 
insinuates that the conduct of his father is objectionable, but will not 
allow himself, from filial respect, to give vent to unbecoming censure. 
Brunck's translation bears about as much relation to the original, as it 
does to sense and intelligibility : " Est tamen ut alius etiam vera dicere 
queat." 



691—727. ANTIGONE. 185 

you would not be pleased to hear ; but I, in the shade, can 
hear them, in what way the city mourns for this virgin ; how 
she, the most undeservedly of all women, perishes by the 
most wretched death, after most glorious deeds : she who did 
not suffer her own brother, having fallen in the slaughter, 
unburied, to be destroyed by i-avening dogs, nor by any 
bird. Is not she worthy of gaining golden honour? Such a 
hidden report makes its way on in silence. To me, father, 
there is no possession more honourable than your prosperity : 
for what is a greater ornament of glory to children than a 
father flourishing? or what to a father than his children? 
Do not now bear this one disposition of mind only in your- 
self, that w^hat you say, and nothing else, is right ; for who- 
soever thinks that he himself alone has wisdom, or a tongue, 
or a soul, such as no other, these men, when laid open, have 
been seen to be empty. But it is no disgrace to a man, even 
though he be wise, to learn many things, and not to strive 
too much against others. You see by the channels of winter 
streams how as many trees as yield preserve their boughs ; 
but those that resist perish with the very root. And in like 
manner, whoever managing a ship, having drawn firm the 
sail-rope, gives no way ; he upsetting her, navigates for the 
future with benches turned upside down. But yield from 
your anger\ and grant a change. For if there is any judg- 
ment with me too, though a younger man, I say, that it is 
far the best for a man to be by nature full of knowledge ; but 
if not, for it is not wont to incline in this way, it is also 
honourable to learn from those that advise welP. 

Ch. O king ! it is meet, if he speak to the purpose, that 
you should learn from him ; and you, Haemon, again fi'om 
your father : for it has been well spoken on both sides. 

Cr. Shall we, of such an age, be taught wisdom by one of 
his time of life ? 

1 Dindorf strangely retains Qvfn^. B. 

2 There is a passage very similar to this in Hesiod, which the readers 
of Aristotle will remember quoted in the first book of the Ethics: — 

ILiivoQ fiev Travapicrrog, og avrbq Tzavra vorjffei 
'^paaadfxevog to. k tTTiiTa Kai eg tsXoq ijaiv dfieipu)' 
'EaQXog S' av KCfKtlvog, og tv t'nrovTL iriQ-qTai. 
"Oc ^£ K£ /XTJr' avTog vosy, ^rii]' dWov dKovu)v 
'Ev Ovfit^ (idXXijTaif od' avr dxpr]iog dvrfp, 

Hesiod. Epy. 290. 



186 ANTIGONE. 728—751. 

Hje. Nothing which is not just; but if I am a young man, 
it is not fitting to retard years more than works. 

Cr. For it is a good work to pay regard to those who are 
guilty of disobedience ? 

Km. No, nor would I desire you to observe reverence to- 
wards the bad. 

Cr. For has not she been seized with such a disease : 

H^. The people that dwell together in this city of Thebe 
deny it. 

Cr. Shall the city dictate to me what it is proper for me to 
ordain r 

H^. Do you see how you have spoken this like a very 
young man ? 

Cr. For does it become any other one than me to rule this 
land? 

H^. Nay, that is not the state which is dependent on one 
man. 

Cr. Is not the state deemed the possession of its ruler ? 

Hje. No doubt: — in an uninhabited land at least you 
might rule alone. 

Cr. He, as it appears, fights in alliance with a woman. 

H.M. If you are a woman ; for my care is for you. 

Cr. Oh, utterly basest of wi-etches ! quaiTcUing with your 
Mher ! 

H^. For I see you committing the sin of injustice. 

Cr. Do I sin in paying reverence to my own dominion ? 

H^. You do not pay reverence when trampling under foot 
at least the honours of the gods. 

Cr. Oh, accursed disposition, and enslaved to a woman I 

Hje. You will not, at aU events, ever find me the slave of 
what is base. 

Cr. All your speech at least is for her. 

H^. And for you too, and for me, and for the gods below 
the earth. 

Cr. It may not be that vou should ever now marrv her in 
life. 

H^. She then will die, and, dying, will destroy some one^ 

^ Creon evidently supposes that Hsemon threatens his life, mistaking 
what is an ambiguous intimation of his purpose of destroying himself. 
Tr.— The Covent Garden adapter well rendered it. "She'll die — per- 
chance not only she." B. 



/ 52— 775. ANTIGONE. 187 

Cr. Do you also, threatening, thus advance in audacity ? 

H^. And what threat is it to argue against foolish 
opinions ? 

Cr. To your cost you shall school me, being yourself void 
of understanding. 

H^, If you were not my father, I would have said that you 
were simple. 

Cr. Being the slave of a woman, do not revile me^ 

H^. Do you wish to speak, and speaking, to hear nothing 
in return ? 

Cr. Can this be true ? — but know, by Olympus, that you 
shall not with impunity insult me with your upbraidings. 
Bring the hateful thing, that she may immediately die in the 
presence of her bridegroom, near him, and in his sight. 

Hje. Never, near me at least, think it not, shall she perish ; 
and you shall no longer, beholding it with your eyes, see my 
face, wherefore thou may est be mad in company with such 
friends as are willing [to abide it]. 

Ch. The man, O king! has departed abruptly in anger; 
and the mind, when pained at his years, is dreadful. 

Cr. Let him do what he pleases; let him, going, feel 
prouder thoughts than become a mortal ; but he shall not 
release these virgins from their fate. 

Ch. For do you intend to kill both of them ? 

Cr. Not her at least who did not touch the body, for you 
certainly suggest this well. 

Ch. And by what sort of death do you meditate to destroy 
her? 

Cr. Conducting her where the way is untrodden by mor- 
tals, I will bury her alive in the cavern of the rock^, oidy set- 
ting forth so much food as will suffice for expiation^, in order 

1 Kwri'XXw generally means adulor, but here it is necessarily taken in an 
opposite sense. This mode of using the same word in a directly contrary 
signification is not uncommon. "Ovti^oq is a marked instance of it : 
Qij^aiQ KoXkidTov uveiSog. Eur. Phoen. 821. 

2 " In arcam inclusos tradunt non dissimili genere pcense Danaen : 
Cycni liberos, (Lycophr. 239 ) Comatam, (Theocrit. vii. 78.) denique 
Sotadem poetam, (Athen. xiv. cap. 4.)" Musgrave. 

^ It is singular that in all cases of this live-burial, either ancient or 
modern, we find the custom prevail of leaving a certain quantity of food 
with the victim. In Greece it was held impious to suffer any one to die 
of famine, and this was a kind of juggling way of satisfying the conscience 



188 ANTIGONE. 776—805. 

that all the city may avoid the pollution. There, imploring 
Pluto, whom alone of gods she reveres, she will obtain a re- 
spite from death, or will know at least then that it is lost trou- 
ble to pay reverence to those in the shades. 

Chorus. O Love ! unconquerable in the fight. Love! who 
lightest on wealth^, who makest thy couch in the soft cheeks'' of 
the youthful damsel, and roamest beyond the sea, and mid the 
rural cots, thee shall neither any of the immortals escape, nor of 
men the creatures of a day' : but he that feels thee is that instant 
maddened. Thou for their ruin seducest the minds of the just to 
injustice : thou hast stirred up this strife of kindred men, and 
desire revealed from the eyes* of the beauteous bride wins the 
victory, desire that holds its seat** beside the mighty laws inrule ; 
for the goddess Venus wantons unconquerable amongst all. But 
now already I too am borne T^ithout the pale of laws, behold- 
ing this spectacle ; and I am no longer able to restrain the 
fountains of tears, when I here see Antigone passing on her 
way to the chamber where all repose. 

that the poMution was avoided. In modern times the practice seems to 
have been continued with the cruel object of prolonging tlie torments of 
such a horrible existence. Tr.— For Oriental illustrations see Lane, Arabian 
Nights, vol. iii. p. 102^ note 35. B. 

^ Donaldson, partly after Reisig, would take Krr^fiacn, according to 
Plato's dictum, that men are the KTrjfxara of the gods, and that the poet 
means that Love, by his attacks, enslaves men at once, rendering them 
KTrjfiara. B. 

2 Chise 

Pulchris excubat in genis. Horace. 

3 We may safely put in contrast with this Chorus, though highly beau- 
tiful, the following lines on the same subject, from one of the first of 
modern poets : — 

In peace. Love tunes the shepherd's reed; 

In war he mounts the warrior's steed ; 

In halls, in gay attire is seen; 

In hamlets, dances on the green. 

Jiove rules the court, the camp, the grove, 

And men below, and saints above; 

For love is heaven, and heaven is love. 

Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto iii. 2. 
^ 1 Cf. Eurip. Hipp. 525. "Epcjg 'Bpojg, 6 Kar ofiixdTwv Srd^sig 
ToOov. Achilles Tatius vi. p. 375. eTreiSr] elg to. ofinara tGjv Kokaiv to 
KaWog KaOrjTai, pkov eKeWev bttl Tovg 6(p9aXfiovg tu)v opujvTwv. B. 

* But see Donaldson. Whence the translator got " in heaven's rule," 
I cannot tell. B. 



806—852. ANTIGONE. 189 

Ant. Behold me, ye citizens of my father-land, advancing 
on this last journey, and beholding the light of the sun for this 
last time and never again : but Hades, whose chamber receives 
all, conducts me, living, to the shore of Acheron, neither 
blessed with the lot of wedlock^, nor hath the bridal lay yet 
hymned me, but I shall be the bride of Acheron. 

Ch. Nay, but renowned and enjoying praise you descend to 
this recess of the dead, neither struck by wasting disease, nor 
having received the award of the sword ; but in freedom and 
in life you alone of mortals shall descend to Hades. 

Ant. I have heard that, by a most mournful fate, perished, 
on the promontory of Sipylus, the Phrygian stranger'^, daughter 
of Tantalus. Her, like the clinging ivy, did the shoots of rock 
subdue : and her, dissolving away in showers, as the legends 
of mortals tell, the snow never leaves ; and from her eyes, 
that ever flow with tears, she bedews the cliffs. Most like 
her, the god lulls me to sleep. 

Ch. But she was a goddess, and of heavenly birth ; and we 
are mortals, and of mortals born. And yet to you a perish- 
able creature, it is high fame to meet with a lot like the peers 
of the gods. 

Ant. Woe is me ! I am derided. Why, by the gods of 
my fathers, do you insult me, not yet dead, but still beheld in 
sight ? O my country ! O my countrymen, of rich estate ! O 
ye fountains of Dirce, and grove of Thebe, the renowned for 
the car ! I take you withal jointly to witness, how unlamented 
by my friends, and by what laws I go to the sepulchral dun- 
geon of my untimely tomb. O, woe is me ! who am neither 
a dweller among men nor shades, the living nor the dead. 

^ Antigone, in these beautiful and swan-like dirges, more than once 
expresses her regret for never having experienced the marriage joys. 
There is nothing indelicate, except to the eye of false refinement, in this 
candid declaration of natural feeling. We find an equally pure illustra- 
tion of the same sentiment in the case of Jephtha's daughter, who went 
** and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains." Her example was even 
admired ; for " it was a custom in Igrael, that the daughters of Israel went 
yearly to lament the daughter of Jephtha the Gileadite four days in a 
year." Judges xi. 

" Niobe, who was changed into stone for having bragged Latona with 
her children. Agathias, an old quaint fool, has the following lines on this 
hard punishment : 

'O TVfJL^OQ OVTOg ivSoV OUK iXfl VSKVVf 
'O Vi-KOOQ OV-OQ tKTOQ OVK t'x*' TCLIpOV. 



J 90 ANTIGONE. 853—903 

Ch. Having advanced to the extreme of audacity, thou hast 
violently dashed, my child, against the lofty throne of justice. 
Thou payest some penalty of thy father. 

Ant. Thou hast touched on a thought most painful to me, 
the thrice-renowned griefs of my father, and the fate of all our 
race, the illustrious children of Labdacus. Woe ! for the 
curses that attended my mother's bed, the incestuous con- 
nexion of my wretched mother with my father, from which I, 
unhappy, formerly sprung ! and now accurst, unblessed by 
nuptials, I go to sojourn with my parents. O my brother ! 
having met with an ill-fated marriage^ dying, thou hast des- 
troyed me, yet in life. 

Ch. To act reverently is an act of piety ; but power, to 
whomsoever power is intrusted, must not in any way be trans- 
gressed. Thy self-willed temper has destroyed thee. 

Ant. Unwept, and friendless, and unwedded, I, wretched, 
am conducted on this destined way. It is no longer allowed 
me, unhappy, to look on this luminary's sacred eye ; and no 
friend mourns mine unwept doom. 

Cr. Know ye not that no one would cease from dirges and 
wailings before death, if it were of avail to utter them ? Will 
ye not lead her as quickly as possible, having inclosed her, as 
I directed, in the caverned tomb, leave her by herself alone, 
whether it is fated she shall die or lead a life entombed in 
such a dwelling. For we are free from pollution as respects 
this virgin, but at all events, she shall be deprived of abode 
above. 

AxT. tomb ! O bridal chamber ! excavated, ever- 
guarded dwelling ! where I go to mine own, of whom now 
perished Proserpine has received the greatest number among 
the dead, and of whom I descend the last, and by a fate far the 
most wretched, before ha\'ing fulfilled my term of life ! Depart- 
ing, however, I strongly cherish in my hope that I shall come 
dear to my father, and dear to thee, my mother, and dear to 
thee, brother dear ; since I, with m,y own hand, washed 
you \vhen dead, and decked you out, and poured the libations 
over your tomb: and now, Polynices, having biu-ied your 

^ Polynices wedded the daughter of Adrastus, king of Argos ; and being, 
from this powerful alliance, induced to undertake the expedition against 
Thebes, he met with his own death, and entailed a still more wretched fate 
on his sister. 



904—936. ANTIGONE. 191 

body, I gain such a reward. And yet, in the opinion ctf those 
who have just sentiments, I honoured you aright. For nei- 
ther, though 1 had been the mother of children, nor though 
my husband dying, had mouldered away, would I have under- 
taken this toil against the will of the citizens. On accoimt of 
what law do I say this ? There would have been another hus- 
band for me if the first died, and if I lost my child there would 
have been another from another man ! but my father and my 
mother being laid in the grave, it is impossible a brother 
should ever be born to me^ On the principle of such a law, 
having preferred you, my brother, to all other considerations, 
I seemed to Creon to commit a sin, and to dare what was 
dreadful. And now, seizing me by force, he thus leads me 
away, having never enjoyed the nuptial bed, nor heard the 
nuptial lay, nor having gained the lot of maiTiage, nor of 
rearing my children ; but thus I, an unhappy woman, deserted 
by my friends, go, while alive, to the cavern of the dead. 
Having transgressed, — what justice of the gods ? what need 
is there for me, a miserable wretch, to look any longer to the 
gods ? What ally can I invoke, since at least by observing 
piety, I have obtained the reward of impiety ? But if these 
things are good among the gods, suffering, we may be made 
conscious of our error ; but if my enemies be guilty, may they 
not suffer more evils than they unjustly inflict on me. 

Ch. The same blasts of the same storms of the soul still 
possess her. 

Cfi. Tears, therefore, shall arise upon those who conduct her, 
for their sloA^mess, 

Ant. Woe is me ! this command has come close upon 
death. 

Cr. I give you no hope to console you that these things 
shall not be consummated in this way. 

1 There is a story in Herodotus, of this very principle having been acted 
upon. The whole family of Intaphernes being condemned to death, his 
wife prevailed on Darius, by her lamentations, to grant her the lite of one 
of lier kindred. She chose to save her brother, and gave the same reasons 
as Antigone for neglecting her husband and children. The two ladies may 
reason very subtilely on the point, but the principle they go upon is evi- 
dently false. The original institution that " a man should leave his father 
and his mother, and should cleave unto his wife," is no less agreeable to 
nature, than to reason and revelation. The example of Alcestis will 
always be more admired than that of the wife of Intaphernes, 



192 ANTIGONE. 937—983. 

Ant. O native city of the land of Thebe, and gods of my 
father's race, I am hurried along, and have no more respite. 
Behold, ye rulers of Thebes, the last remaining of the ro3'al 
race, what deeds I suffer at the hands of what men for having 
revered religion. 

Ch. Tlie form of Danae^, too, endured to change the light 
of heaven ; in dungeons secured with brass, and concealed in 
a sepulchral chamber, she was bound. And yet she was hon- 
oured in her race, my child, my child, and cherished the seed 
of Jove, that flowed in golden shower. But the power of fate 
is a marvellous one. Neither tempest, nor war, nor tower, 
nor black sea- beaten ships, escape its control. To that yoke, 
too, was bowed the keen-wrathed son of Dryas^, king of the 
Edonians, being prisoned by Bacchus for his virulent temper 
in the bonds of rock ; and thus he distils the dreadful venom 
of madness, ever bursting up afresh. He knew, when too late, 
that' it was a god he had glanced at in his frenzy with reviling 
words. For he would have put a stop to the inspired maids 
and the Bacchic flame ; and he chafed the Muses, the lovers of 
song. By the Cyanean deeps of the double sea, the shores of 
the Bosphorus, and the Thracian Salmydessus, (where Mars 
dwells near their cities,) saw the accursed wound, inflicted 
with blindness, on the two sons of Phineus, by a fell step- 
mother*, a darkening wound, imprinted on the wretched balls 
of their eyes, with bloody hands, by the spear, and the points of 
the shuttle : and pining away in misery, they wept the 
wretched sufferings of their mother, who bore the children of 
an ill-fated marriage. But she owned the seed of the sons of 
Erectheus*, of ancient lineage ; and in far distant caves was 

^ The Chorus, in this wild and beautiful strain, console Antigone with 
the enumeration of other fates as wretched as her own. It has been well 
enough observed, that the examples they quote of Danae and Lycurgus, 
are not compared to her in their crimes, but their sufferings. 

2 The son of Dryas was Lycurgus, who having routed the Bacchanalians 
from his territory, was punished by their god with some severe doom, here 
described as imprisonment, but variously related by various authors. 

^ Donaldson reads, Kelvog tTrsyvw Sk Svaig. B. 

^ Idaia, who barbarously put out the eyes of Plexippus and Pandion, 
the sons of Phineus, by his first wife Cleopatra. 

5 Her mother Orithyia was the daughter of Erectheus, and wife of 
Boreas. It was on this claim of kindred that the Athenians, in obedience 
to the oracle, asked the aid of their son-in-law Boreas during the Persian 



984—1019. ANTIGONE. 193 

nursed, amid the storms of her father, a daughter of Boreas\ 
rivalling the steed in swiftness, as she bounded over the 
lofty mountains, child of heaven ; but even over her, my 
daughter, the eternal Fates prevailed. 

TiRESiAS. Ye princes of Thebes, we come on this common 
way, two seeing by one, for the journey of the blind is made 
by a guide. 

Cn. But what new event, aged Tiresias, has hap- 
pened ? 

TiR. I will teach you, and do you obey the prophet. 

Ce.. I was not formerly wont to depart from your advice. 

Tin. Wherefore you direct aright the helm of this state. 

Cr. I testify the advantages I have experienced. 

TiR. Consider that you now again stand on the very edge 
of fate. 
. Cr. What is it ? How I shudder at your words ! 

TiR. You shall know, hearing the signs of my art. For, 
sitting down on my ancient augural seat, where was my 
station for all augury, I hear an unknown sound of birds, 
beating the air with ill-omened and unwonted fury, and I 
perceived that they were tearing each other with bloody 
talons ; for the clashing of their wings gave clear indication. 
Being alarmed, I straightway essayed the divination by fire 
on the blazing altars ; and from the sacrifice the flame burst 
not forth, but on the ashes a clammy vapour kept oozing 
from the thighs, and burnt up, and sputtered, and the entrails 
were scattered in air, and the thighs*, melting away, fell 
out from the involving cawl. Such expiring^ omens of mys- 
terious rites I learned from this boy ; for he is a guide to me, 
and I to others. And the city is afflicted with this from your 
determination : for our altars, and all our hearths, are full of 
birds and dogs, feeding on the body of the wretched son of 
(Edipus ; and the gods no longer accept from us the sacri- 

1 Bopedg, ddog, a patronymic appellation for a nymph descended from 
Boreas. 

2 The thighs were the part of the sacrifice appropriated to the gbds, 
because, says Eustathius, they are useful to men for walking and gene- 
ration. It is clear enough that the thighs are considerably useful in these 
important functions, but why for this reason they should be peculiarly 
acceptable to the gods is by no means so obvious. 

3 ^OivovT, evanescentia. Mali ominis erat in ignispiciis quicquid 
debile et evanidum erat. Musgrave. 



194 ANTIGONE. 1020—1061. 

ficial prayer, nor the flame of the thighs ; nor does bird send 
forth the notes of propitious omen, being gorged with the 
fat of human gore. These things, therefore, my son, consider ; 
for it is common to all men to err : but when one may err, 
he is no longer an unwise nor an infatuated man, who, having 
fallen into evil, is cured, nor remains immoveable. Obstinacy 
incurs the imputation of folly. War not with the fallen, nor 
wound the dead. What prowess is it to slay the slain? 
Being well-disposed towards you I advise you well ; and it 
is most pleasing to learn from a good adviser, if his advice 
bring advantage. 

Cr. Old man, ye all, like archers at a mark, discharge 
your shafts at me ; and I am not unacquainted with the arts 
of prophets, by the race of whom I have long since been 
made the subject of barter and traffic. Pursue your gain, 
make your purchase, if you choose, of the amber of Sardis, 
and the gold of India ; but him ye shall never inclose in the 
tomb ; not even though the eagles of Jove, seizing him as 
their prey, should bear him to the throne of the god; not 
even thus, dreading the pollution, would I permit his burial. 
For I well know that no mortal is able to pollute the gods. 
But, O aged Tiresias, even those men who are clever in many 
things, meet with disgraceful falls, when, for the sake of 
gain, they plead speciously a base argument. 

TiR. Ha ! Does any man know, does he consider 

Cr. What is the matter ? ^Vhat trite saying is this ? 

Tib. By how much wisdom is the best of possessions ? 

Cr. By so much, methinks, as folly is the greatest bane. 

TiR. You, however, are by nature full of this malady. 

Cr. I do not wish to bandy reproach with a prophet. 

TiR. And yet you do, saying that I prophesy what is false. 

Cr. For all the race of prophets are lovers of gain. 

TiR. But that of kings loves base gain. 

Cr. Do you know that you addiess what you say to your 
rulers? 

TiR. I know it; for having preserved by my means this 
city, you sway it. 

Cr. You are a skilful prophet, but given to injustice. 

TiR. You will force me to utter the secrets that lie un- 
moved in my breast. 

Cr. Move them, only do not speak for gain. 



1062—1098. ANTIGONE. lf)5 

TiR. For thus do I already seem to have spoken, as far as 
regards your part? 

Cr. I^ow that you shall not sell my resolution. 
TiR. But do you too know well, that you shall not any 
longer see to their end many coiurses of the sun in rival speed, 
before that yourself repay one sprung from your own bowels, 
dead, a recompense for the dead, in return for ha\dng sent 
one who was in upper air below the earth, and dishonourably 
made a living being to dwell in the tomb, and for having on 
the other hand detained here one debarred from intercom-se 
with the infernal deities, and deprived of funeral obsequies 
an unhallowed corse ; in which things, neither any concern 
appertains to you, nor to the gods above. But these things 
are done with violent injustice by you ; for this, the Furies 
of Hades, and of the gods, avenging with penal consequence, 
lie in ambush for you, that you may be enthralled by the same 
misfortunes. See if, induced by money, I prophesy this : 
for the lapse of no long time shall exhibit the mom'ning of 
men and women in your palace ; and all the states shall be 
stirred up together in enmity^, the mangled bodies of whose 
citizens or dogs have polluted, or wild beasts, or some winged 
bii'd, bearing an unhallowed stench to the altars of the city.- 
Such unerring aiTows, since you pain me, I have discharged, 
like an archer, in anger from my soul, and their warm smart 
you shall not escape. But do you, boy, conduct me home, 
that he may vent his passion upon younger men, and may 
know to nurse a more temperate tongue, and feelings better 
than the mind he now bears. 

Ch. The man, O king, has departed, having predicted 
di-eadful events : and I know, fi-om the time that I changed 
this hair into white from black, that he never once declared 
to the city what was false. 

Cr. I also have known it, and I am disturbed in my 
thoughts: but to yield were cowardly; and there is danger 
that, by resisting, I afflict my mind with calamity. 

Ch. There is need, O Creon, son of Menceceus, of pru- 
dent counsel. 

1 Those states that had joined in the expedition, and whose dead were 
all left unburied. Their being stirred up in enmity is a prophetic allusion 
to the expedition of the Epigoni, wlio conquered Thebes to revenge the 
misfortunes of their fathers before its walls. 

o 2 



196 ANlmoNE. 1099—1129. 

Cr. What, in truth, is it requisite to do ? Tell me, and I 
will obey. 

Ch. Going, release the virgin from her subterraneous abode, 
and prepare a tomb for the body that lies exposed. 

Cr. And do you approve of this, and think I ought to 
yield ? 

Ch. Ay, and as quickly too, O king, as possible; for the 
swift-footed vengeance of heaven cuts short those who are of 
wicked minds. 

Cr. Ah me 1 it is with difficulty indeed, but still I am 
changed from my purpose to do it. We must not maintain 
an unequal combat with necessity. 

Ch. Going, now, do these things; do not entrust them to 
others. 

Cr. Thus, as I am, I will go. But ye attendants, both 
present and absent, taking axes in your hands, rush to the 
conspicuous spot ; and since my opinion has been converted 
in this way, as I myself bound her, so, being present, I will 
set her at liberty ; for I fear lest it be not best, preserving 
the established laws, to close life. 

Chorus. thou, who art hailed by many a name^ glory 
of the Theban nymph, and son of deeply-thundering Jove, 
who swayest renowned Italia, and president o'er the rites of 
Ceres, in the vales of Eleusis, open to all ! O Bacchus, who 
dwellest in Thebe, the mother city of the Bacchanals, by the 
flowing streams of Ismenus, and the fields where the teeth 
of the fell dragon were sown; thee, the smoke beheld as it 
burst into flame above the double-crested rock^, where roam 

^ Bacchus was rich in names, chiefly derived from his attributes. They 
were Lyseus, Lenseus, Bassareus, Bromius, Euius, Eleleus, Dithyrambus, 
and fifty others. 

2 ffTspOip — \iyvvg, hicidus, vel candens, fulgidus vapor. Musgrave. 
This smoke or flame, or both, which denoted the presence or approach of 
the god on the summits of Parnassus, is frequently celebrated by the 
poets : 

id) XajiTTOvfTa ireTpa Trvpog 

SiKopvipov akXag, virtp aKptJV 

BaKx^wv. Eurip. Phoenissse, 237. 

' . evOa TTvp TTTj^a 9eov 

BaKx^Xcjv. Eurip. Ion. 1125. Tr. 

— ^On >the Hght which was supposed to shine a;t the approach of a god, 
see Virg. JEn. L 406^ II. 590. Ovid. Fast. I. ^4. B. 



1130—1171. ANTIGONE. 197 

the Corycian nymphs^ the votaries of Bacchus, and the fount 
of Castalia flows ; and thee the i\y-crowned steeps of the 
Nysian mountains^, and the green shore, with its many clus- 
ters, triumphant send along* amid immortal words, that hymn 
thy " Evoe" I to reign the guardian of the streets of Thebe, 
whom you honour highest of all cities, along with your 
mother that perished by the thunder. And now, since the 
city with all its people is enthralled by a violent disease, 
come with healing steps, over the slopes of Parnassus, or the 
resounding gulf of the sea*. O leader of the choir of flame- 
breathing stars^, director of the voices that sound by night, 
youthful, god, son of Jove, reveal thyself along with thy min- 
istering Moenads, the Naxian maids, who maddening through 
the live-long night, celebrate thee with the dance, thee their 
lord lacchus. 

Messenger. Ye inhabitants of the abodes of Cadmus and 
Amphion, it is impossible that I should ever praise or blame 
the life of man in whatever condition it may be : for Fortune 
always raises, and Fortune casts down the prosperous and th(- 
unprosperous : and no one is prescient of what is decreed 
for mortals. For Creon once, as appeared to me, was en- 
viable, having preserved this land of Cadmus from the enemy, 
and receiving the complete dominion of the country, he 
directed it, happily flourishing with a noble race of children : 
and now all is gone. For when a man loses the pleasures 
of life, 1 do not consider him to live, but look upon him as 
the living dead. Let him have great wealth, if you choose, 
in his house, and live with the outward splendour of a king; 
but if joy be wanting to these, I would not purchase the rest 
with the shadow of smoke compared with the real pleasures. 

^ So called from the Corycian grotto, their consecrated abode at the 
foot of mount Parnassus. 

2 There were various mountains of this name. Nysa, in Euboea, is 
supposed to be the one alluded to here. 

•* " triumphant lead." Such is the force of TrejiTreLV, when speaking of 
a god led in procession. JEsch. Eum. 12. Trij-nrovaL S' abrbv kcu (7£/3/- 
ZohiJLv fieya. Sedulius Paschal. 18, uses a semi-barbarous word, " pom- 
j)are:" " Grandisoms pompare modis." With the whole description 
compare Aristoph. Thesmoph. 988, sqq.; Ran. 325, sqq. B. 

*• Crossing from Euboea to Boeotia. 

° Some take these words literally, others regard them as figurative of 
the torches borne by the Bacchanals. 



198 ANTIGONE. 1172—1199 

Ch. What burden of soitow on our princes is this again, 
that you come to tell ? 

Mess. They are dead : and the living are guilty of their 
death. 

Ch. And who was the slayer? and who is the slain? 
— speak. 

Mess. Hsemon has perished, and by a suicidal hand he is 
dyed with blood. 

Ch. Whether by his father's hand, or by his own^ ? 

Mess. Himself, by his own hand, being angry with his 
father on account of the murder. 

Ch. O prophet! how correctly have you declared this 
prediction ! 

Mess. As these things being so, you may deliberate on 
the rest. 

Ch. And in truth I see near at hand the wretched Eurydice, 
wife of Creon ; and having neither heard of her son, or by 
chance, she is passing from the palace. 

EuKYDiCE. O all ye citizens, I heard the rumour, at 
least, as I was going out in order that I might repair to the 
temple of the goddess Pallas, her suppliant in prayer; and 
I chance to be undoing the bars of the fastened gate, and the 
voice of domestic affliction strikes my ears. Moved by ter- 
ror, I fall prostrate in the arms of my attendants and faint 
away. But whatever was the tale, repeat it; for not untried 
by misfortune, I shall hear it. 

Mess. I, my dear mistress, being present, will tell it, and 
I will not omit a word of the truth. For why should I alle- 
viate that to you in which I should afterwards be detected 
of falsehood ? The truth is always right. I followed your 
husband an attendant on foot to the extremity of the plain, 
where still lay the unpitied body of Polynices, mangled by 
dogs ; and him, indeed, ha\dng implored the goddess that is 

^ The ignorance of fat-brained commentators has led them to make a 
row about this question being put by the Chorus, after the Messenger had 
announced the death of Hsemon by his own hand. The scholiast, simple 
soul, will have it, that the Chorus, in their agitation, heard no more than 
the words, "Hsemon has perished." Musgrave and Heath blunder in an 
equally pitiable manner. Any one who had read ten lines of Greek 
poetiy, ought to have known that the dying by a kindred hand was con- 
sidered and spoken of as suicide. Tr. — Cf. Liddell, s. v. B. 



1200—1234. ANTIGONE. 199 

placed in the highways^, and Pluto to have a gracious will, 
we bathed with holy lavations, and having consumed what 
remained of the body, with fresh-plucked boughs, and piled 
up a lofty barrow of his native soil, we again repair to the 
rocky cavern, the bridal chamber of the grave's bethrothed. 
And some one hears at a distance the voice of loud lament 
beside that unconsecrated chamber, and hastening he tells it 
to our master, Creon : but round him, as he approached 
nearer, there float the indistinct notes of wretched wailing, 
and shrieking, he utters these mournfid words : " O unhaj)py 
me ! am I then a true prophet ? Do I now advance on the 
most ill-fated way of all that I have gone before ? The voice 
of my son greets^ me. Go with speed, ye attendants, nearer, 
and standing by the tomb, ascertain, having penetrated the cleft 
made by drawing away the stone close to the mouth, whether 
I hear the voice of Hsemon, or am deceived by the gods." 
On the command of our desponding master we examined the 
place, and we see in the extremity of the tomb the virgin, 
hanging by the neck, suspended in the woven noose of her 
linen robe, and the youth lying beside her with his arms 
around her waist, deploring the destruction of his bride be- 
low the earth, and the deeds of his father, and his ill-starred 
nuptials. But Creon, when he sees him, having uttered a 
dismal groan, goes in towards him, and in the loud tone of 
grief calls on him : "0 wretched man, what sort of deed have 
you done ? What mind had you ? In what circumstance of 
calamity are you ruined ? Come forth, my son, suppliant I 
beseech you." But his son, glaring on him with savage eyes, 
spitting on his face', and replying nothing, draws his double- 
edged sword^ : Jjut his father rushing away in flight, he 
missed him ; then the ill-fated man, enraged with himself, 



1 Trivia, Hecate, or Proserpine, 

2 caivH. There is some difficulty in this word. Perhaps if we con- 
sider the provincialism by which "greeting" is used for "weeping," the 
word will appear less inapposite than otherwise. B. 

3 I prefer "spurning him with his glance." Bulwer adheres to the 
other interpretation. B. 

•* Aristotle very justly finds fault with this incident. There is some- 
thing horrible and unnatural in the attempt of a son to slay his own 
father; and since he fails to execute his purpose, there is no tragical effect 
produced. The spectator ought not to be shocked unnecessarily. 



200 ANTIGONE. 1235—1258. 

immediately stretching out^ the sword, drove it to the middle 
iA his side, and still in possession of his senses, with his 
enfeebled arm he embraces the virgin'^ ; and gasping, he casts 
a swift gush of gory drops on her pallid cheek. And dead 
by the dead the hapless youth lies, having obtained his nup- 
tial rites in the mansions of Pluto, a proof to the world of 
rashness, how it attaches to man the greatest of his ills. 

Ch. AVhat can you conjecture this to mean? The woman 
has some time since disappeared before uttering M'ord, good 
or bad^. 

Mess. I myself also am astonished : but I live in the hope 
that, hearing the calamities of her son, she does not deign 
to make her lamentations pubUc, but within, beneath the roof 
of the palace, will ai^point her maids to mourn a domestic 
sorrow: for she is not devoid of judgment, so as to commit 
what is improper. 

Ch. I know not: for to me, at least, a deep silence seems 
to portend something grievous, and an excess of clamorous 
grief to be without consequence. 

Mess. But going Mdthin the palace, we will inform our- 
selves whether she secretly conceals in her enraged heart any 
unlawful purpose : for your suggestion is good, and there is 
something grievous in too deep silence. 

Ch. And in truth here comes the king himself, having a 
memorable token in his hand*, if we may lawfully so say, — no 

* kirevTaOeiQ^ pro iTrevreivafiEvog. Sic, ut erat, ensem intentans. 
Musgrave. 

2 This description of the two ill-fated lovers, the dying and the dead, 
contains the veiy essence of poetry, and tragic beauty. A finer subject 
for a picture cannot well be imagined. 

^ There is something very striking and fearful inn;he moody silence of 
deep passion and despair. 

■ SkCOlX OTTCiJQ 

fit] 'k Trig GKjjrrrjg rrjcrS' avappr]^H KUKa. CEdip. Tyran. 1074. 
A few lines below, the Chorus also expresses this same feeling of appre- 
hension, arising from the same cause. 

^ Creon, it would appear from this, comes in, carrying the dead body 
of Hsemon. Shakspeare, in a similar way, introduces Lear with Cordelia 
in his arms. This incident is well calculated for stage effect : but the 
Goths who have mangled Lear for representation, have now left out the 
scene of " that fair dead daughter." Tr. — Macready, however, has shown 
his wonted judgment by its restoration. In the present scene, Vanden- 
hofF's action and declamation merited the highest commendation. B. 



1259—1302, ANTIGONE. 20J 

calamity from a foreign source, but he himself its guilty 
author. 

[Enter Ckeon, leaning upon the body of his son, borne on a 
litter.'] 

Ck. Alas ! the irreparable and deadly errors of a perverted 
mind ! ye, who look on the kindred slayers and the slain ! 
Oh me ! for the infatuation of my counsels ! O my son 1 my 
son ! in your youth by an untimely fate, [woe, woe, woe, 
woe !] thou hast died, thou hast departed by mine, not thy 
rashness ! 

Ch. Ah me ! how you seem too late to perceive justice ! 

Ce,. Ah me ! I wretched gain it by experience ; and on my 
head the god then dashed with heavy impulse, and drove me 
on to furious ways ; having, alas ! overturned to be trampled 
beneath foot my former joy. Alas ! alas ! O the toils of mor- 
tals ! hapless toils ! 

Messenger. O master, how, both having the possessing, 
you bear these evils in your hands, and you seem coming soon 
about to behold other evils in your palace. 

Cb,. And what, after these calamities, is there still more 
calamitous ? 

Mess. Your wife is dead, the full mother of this corpse, in 
an unhappy fate by wounds just fresh inflicted. 

Ck. O port of the gTave, that no expiation may soothe, why, 
why do you destroy me ? O thou that hast conveyed to me 
the evil tidings of sorrow, what a tale dost thou tell ? Alas , 
alas ! thou hast a second time despatched a dead man. What, 
O man, dost thou say ? ^^Hiat new intelligence dost thou deli- 
ver ? Woe, woe, woe, woe ! that the death of my yviie by 
murder is added to the destruction of my son ? 

Mess. You may behold it; for the body is no longer in the 
inner recesses. 

[By a movement of the eKKUKXrjfia the scene opens and discovers 
the body o/"Eurydice, surrounded by her attendants.^ 

Cr. Woe is me ! this other succeeding evil I wretched be- 
hold. What then, what fate yet awaits me ? I, an unhappy 
wretch, am already bearing in my arms ray son, and I see 
opposite that other dead body. Alas ! alas, wi etched mo- 
ther ! alas, my son ! 

Mess. She, in keen anger, filling down beside the altar, 
closes her darkening eyes, having first, indeed, bewailed the 



202 ANTIGONE. 1303—1353. 

illustrious bed of Megareus, who formerly died, and again of 
him before us ; and last, having imprecated a baneful fortune 
on you the murderer of your children. 

Ck,. Woe, woe, woe, woe ! I am fluttered with fear. Why 
does not some one wound me through with a two-edged 
sword ? A wretched man am I, alas ! alas ! and in a wretched 
fate am I involved. 

Mess. As being guilty at least of both the one fate and the 
other, you were denounced by her as she died. 

Cr. But in what way did she depart, from life in the 
slaughter ? 

Mess. Having with her own hand pierced herself below 
the liver, when she heard the deeply-mournful sufferings of 
her son. 

Cr. Woe is me ; this guilt will never apply to any other 
but me : for I, a miserable wretch, I have slain thee : I say 
the truth. O ye attendants, conduct me, with all speed con- 
duct me without ; me, who am no more than nothingness. 

Ch. You bid what profits, if there be any aught that pro- 
fits in misfortunes : for present evils, when shortest are best. 

Cii. Let it come, let it come, let the last of my fates appear, 
bringing most happily to me the close of my days : let it come, 
let it come, so that I may never behold another day. 

Mess. Those things are future : of these things present 
command what we ought to do ; for others are a care to those 
whom it behoves to have this care. 

Cr. But I prayed for those things 1 desire. 

Mess. Pray now for nothing; since there is no escape to 
mortals from predestined calamity. 

[Creon is led off.'] 

Cr. Lead away now without this shadow of a man, who, O 
my son, unwillingly slew thee, and thee, too, my wife. O 
wretched man that I am ! I neither know whither nor to 
whom I should look ; for every thing misguided, both in my 
hands and over my head, has an intolerable fate made to bui'st 
upon me. 

Ch. To be wise is the first part of happiness : and it 
behoves us not to be guilty of iiTCverence in those things at 
least that concern the gods; for the haughty words of the 
vaunting, paying the penalty of severe affliction, have taught 
wisdom to old age. 



1— II. 



TRACHINIiE. 



Hercules having excited the jealous fears of Deianira by bringing 
home the captive lole as a new partner of his bed, she sent him as a 
love-charm a garment dipped in the blood which fell from the death- 
wound with which the Centavir Nessus had been stricken by Hercules. 
The poison took a fatal effect, and Hercules, perishing in agony, was 
placed on a funeral pile on Mount (Eta, where] he was to receive his 
immortality, and rest from suffering. Deianira, in despair, slew her- 
self. B. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 



Deianira. 

Attendant. 
Hyllus. 
Chorus. 
Messenger. 



LiCHAS. 

Nurse. 
Old Man. 
Hercules. 



Deianika. There is an ancient saying, renowned among 
men, that you cannot fully judge of the life of mortals, whe- 
ther it has been good or bad to an individual before his deaths 
But I, even before I come to the realms of Pluto, know that I 
have led my life in misfortune and calamity: I, who indeed, while 
dwelling in the palace of my father QEneus, in Pleuron^, felt the 
greatest horror of nuptials of all the .^Etolian maids. For my 
suitor was a river, I mean the Acheloiis, who, in three forms, 
sought me of my father : now coming in full shape a bull^ : at 

^ This sentiment is common enough ; but the way in which it is here 
talked of, us famous and proverbial, shows us that Sophocles had in view 
the speech of Solon to Croesus. If he meant to make Deianira quote 
Solon, he is guilty of a very gross anachronism. Tr. — See Hermann. B. 

2 Pleuron was the capital of ^tolia, and is reported to have been a 
city of great splendour in the early ages of Greece. 

^ This seems to have been the common way, in ancient times, of repre- 
senting rivers. Homer has frequent allusions to it; and Horace applies 
the epithet " tauriformis " to the Aufidus, at a time when such supersti- 
tions had rather gone by. There are various accounts given of the origin 
and meaning of this fanciful custom; but that which supposes it to have 



204 TRACniNIiE. 12—44. 

another time, a speckled wreathied snake; and at a third, in the 
body of a man with the head of a bull: and from his thick-shaggy 
beard, the streams of liquid founts kept flowing. I, wretched, 
having received such a suitor, always prayed to die before I 
should ever approach his bed. And in late time indeed, but to 
my joy, came the illustrious son of Jove and Alcmena, who 
engaging with this monster in the strife of battle, delivers me. 
The manner of their fray I am not able to describe : for I 
know it not ; but whosoever sat undismayed during the spec- 
tacle, he could tell it*. For I sat confounded with terror, lest 
my beauty might, on a time, work my bane. But Jove, the 
arbiter of conflicts, disposed the issue well, if in truth it be 
well ; for being united his awarded bride to Hercules, I ever 
sustain fear succeeding fear in boding cares for him, since 
night brings, and night in turn removes some toil. And I 
indeed have borne him children, whom, like a husbandman 
that hath a field far distant, he hath once only looked on in 
the seed-time, and once again in the harvest. Such a life 
sends from home and to home the hero, always paying service 
to some one^ : and now M^hen he has reached the goal of these 
labours, here in truth I feel most alarmed. For since the time 
that he slew the mighty l2)hitus', we indeed, changing our 
abode, dwell here in Trachis, with a stranger host* ; but 
w^here he has gone, no one knows : but he has departed, leav- 
ing bitter pangs to me on his account; and I am almost sure 
that he has met with some mishap. For he remains for no 
small space of time, but aheady for ten months, in addition to 

some reference to the overflowing of the Nile, when the sun enters the 
Bull, thougu rar-fetched, is perhaps the least absurd. 

^ A spirited description of the combat is given by the Chorus in this 
play, V. 500—530. 

2 Eurystheus king of Mycenae was the great task-master of Hercules. 
The Fates had decreed that the one of them who was first born should 
have the other for his slave. Juno, the implacable step-mother of Her- 
cules, took advantage of her power as the goddess of child-birth, to give 
Eurystheus the important start. Virgil alludes to this circumstance, 
^n. viii. V. 291. 

■ ut duros mille labores 

Rege sub Eurystheo, fatis Junonis iniquse, 
Pertulerit. 

3 The murder of Iphitus is related in this play, v. 270 — 275. 
* Ceyx, the king of Trachis. 



45—75. TRACHINI^. 205 

other five, without sending any tidings ; and there must be 
some dreadful misfortune. Of this purport he left me, at his 
departure, a >vriting, which I often pray to the gods to have 
received unaccompanied by calamity. 

Attendant. My mistress, Deianira, I have already seen 
you bewailing the departure of Hercules with many weeping 
laments ; and now if it be right to admonish the free-born 
with the opinions of a slave, it behoves even me this much to 
suggest. How, indeed, do you abound with so many children, 
yet do not send some one in search of your husband, and espe- 
cially Hyllus, whom it becomes to show if he bears any regard 
for his father's prosperity ? But here he himself, near at hand, 
is bounding towards the house with vigorous step ; so that, if 
I seem to you to give seasonable advice, it is in your power 
to avail yourself of the presence of the youth, and of my 
words. 

Dei. O child, my son, even from the ignobly-born noble 
words proceed : for this woman, indeed, is a slave, but she 
has spoken no slavish speech. 

Hylltjs. Of what import ? — tell me, mother, if it may be 
told. 

Dei. That it brings reproach on you, your father having 
been so long abroad, not to make inquiry where he is. 

Hyl. But I know, if at least one may believe reports. 

Dei. And where on earth do you hear, my child, that he is 
situated ? 

Hyl. They say that for the by-past year he has laboured 
through its long period in bondage to a Lydian woman^. 

Dei. One may therefore hear everything if he submitted to 
this^ 

Hyl. But he is released from this at least, as I learn. 

Dei. Where now, then, living or dead, is he reported to be ? 

Hyl. They say that he leads, or is still on the point of lead- 
ing, an expedition against the land of Eubcea and the city of 
Eurytus. 

^ Omphale. 

2 Quseri potest, cur tantopere Deianira indignetur Omphalge Herculem 
servire qui antea per tot annos Eurystheo servilem operam praestiterat. 
Mihi videntur duge hujus indignationis causae fuisse, prima, quod foeminae, 
altera vero quod Lydae, i. e. barbarae, in servitutem addictus fuerat. 
Musgrave. 



206 TRACHINLE. 76—106. 

Dei. Know you then, my son, how he left to me unerring 
predictions concerning this land ? 

HYii. Of what kind, mother? for I am ignoront of the 
tale. 

Dei. That he is either about to bring his life to its close, 
or having accomplished this labour, for the future to spend the 
remainder of his days in a tranquil existence. Will you not 
then, my son, go to aid him, depending on this crisis, since we 
are either preserved, if he preserv^e his life, or at the same 
time depart and fall, if your father perish^ r 

Htl. But I go, oh mother ! and if I had known the annun- 
ciation of these oracles, even formerly I would have been pre- 
sent. But the usual fortune of my father does not permit us 
to feel foreboding fear, nor to be overmuch dismayed*. But 
now, since I do know them, I will in no respect fail to learn 
the whole truth concerning these matters. 

Dei. Go now, my son; for even he that is late in doing 
well, yet, when he learns his duty procures gain. 

Chorus. "Whom spangled' night, as she dies away, brings 
forth, and again lulls to sleep, the sun*, the blazing sun, I 
implore to tell me of Alcmena's son, where, where at all he 
dwells, oh thou that beamest with refulgent splendours, whe- 
ther on some ocean isthmus, or resting on either continent' ; 
tell me, oh thou, who in sight surpassest ! For I learn that 
Deianira, for whom rivals strove, ever with longing thoughts, 
like some wretched bird, refuses to lull to rest the regret of 

^ See Hermann and Wunder. B. 

2 The clauses vvv S' 6 ^vvr]9i]g and vvv ^, u>q ^vvirjfi' have been 
transposed by Brunck, who reads dXX' 6 ^vvrjOrjg, the corruption arising 
from the similarity in the line just abore. Wunder agrees in transposing 
the passage, but Hermann would throw out the second clause altogether. 
Brunck appears to be nearest the truth. B. 

2 Cf. ^sch. Prom. 24, rj TroiKiXeifnuv vv^. Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 44, 
ed. Elm. "pictis noctibus." B. 

•* 'AXKa av yap l-q Traaav btcI yj^bva icai Kara ttovtov 

alQkpog Ik dirjg KaraCepKeai aKTivtaai, 
vijfiapTeojg [loi^viaTre, (piXov re/cog. ti ttov oTrioTrag. 

Homer. Hymn, in Cer. v. 69. 

^ It is rather absurd to suppose that Hercules could be on the two 
continents at the same moment. Musgrave, after reprehending the inac- 
curacy of the expression, makes a very good-natured excuse for it in these 
words : " Sed nimis severi sumus, nee tanta loquendi subtilitas a poeta 
exigenda." 



107—156. TRACHINI^. 207 

her tearless^ eyes ; but cherishing a ten'or ever present to her 
mind, on account of the journe)^ of her lord, pines away on her 
widowed couch of care*, in expectation of an evil and wretched 
doom. For as one may behold many billows urged by the 
blasts of the unwearied north or south advancing, and speeding 
in succession over the wide ocean, — ^thus life's many cares 
nurse the infancy and rear the manhood of the Theban hero, 
like waves on the Cretan main : but some god ever preserves 
him in safety from the mansions of Pluto. On account of 
which reprehending you, I will suggest what is pleasing in- 
deed, but opposite to your thoughts. For I say that you 
ought not to cast away good hopes, since he that reigns su- 
preme, the son of Saturn, hath not allotted all things to mor- 
tals devoid of calamity; but sorrow and joy return in course 
to all, hke the devolving paths of the Bear. For neither does 
spangled night remain to mortals, nor the fates, nor wealth ; 
but in a moment they are gone : and to the same mortal suc- 
ceed joy and the loss of joy. Wherefore I bid you, my queen, 
in hope ever to retain these reflections ; since who hath seen 
Jove thus devoid of care for his children ? 

Dei. Having learned, as may be conjectured, my sufferings, 
you are present; but how I pine in .spirit, may you never 
learn by experience. Now you are ignorant of its woe : for 
youth is pastured in such vales of its own* ; and neither does 
the heat of heaven, nor showers, nor any gale, distm'b it ; but 
it builds up with pleasures a life of ease, until one be called a 
wife instead of a virgin, and receive her share of anxiety in 
the hours of night, either fearing for her husband or her chil- 
dren. Then might any woman perceive, considering her 
own condition, by what evils I am weighed down. Many 
Bufferings indeed then have I lamented; but one such as I 
have never before [lamented,] will I immediately disclose. 
For when the royal Hercules departed on his last jom'ney from 

^ So Hermann, ewj^d^eii/ tov ttoQov tHjv jSXf^apwv, wote jiyvEaQai 
avTOL aSaKpvTa. B. 

2 Ovid.Epist.i. 7, "Non ego desertojacuissemfrigidalecto: Necquererer 
tardos ire relicta dies. Quando ego non timui graviora pericula veris? 
Res est solliciti plena timoris amor." ix, 35, *' Ipsa domo vidua votis 
operata pudicis Torqueor, infesto ne vir ab hoste cadat." B. 

^ X(^poi(nv avTov. Hermann would read xwpoig Vj/' aurou; Wunder, 
Xwpoic tV dvaivovTog ov 9a\Trog 9eov, a bold and masterly conjecture, 
well deserving to be adopted. B. 



208 TRACHIXI.^. 157—190. 

home, then he leaves in the palace an ancient tablet, inscribed 
with mandates, which before, though going forth to many- 
combats, he never had the heart to disclose to me ; but he 
went, as about to achieve some feat, and not to fall. But now, 
as though he were no more, he told me that it was fitting I 
should take my marriage portion, and told me what share of 
paternal property he awarded to be divided to his children ; 
having appointed, that when he should be gone a year and 
three months from the country, it was either fated he should 
die in this time, or, escaping the close of its period, should 
live for the future in a life free from pain. Such things, he 
said, were decreed for consummation by the gods concerning 
the labours of Hercules, as the ancient beech-tree at Dodona 
had formerly announced by the lips of the twin doves'. And 
the certainty of these predictions coincides with the present 
time, so that it is necessaiy they should be accomplished. 
Thus, my friends, while sweetly slumbering, I start from 
repose, agitated with terror, lest it be fated that I should 
remain bereft of the best of all men. 

Ch. Speak now words of good omen, since I see some 
messenger advancing, crowned with garlands on account of 
his tidings^. 

Messenger. Deianira, my queen, I, first of messengers, will 
release you from your apprehensions ; for, know that the son 
of Alcmena is living, and is victorious, and, the battle over, 
is bringing its first-fruits to the gods of his country. 

Dei. What words are these, old man, that you have spoken 
to me? 

Mess. That quickly to thy palace shall come thy much- 
desired lord, returning with his triumphant powers. 

Dei. And from what citizen or stranger did you learn the 
tidings you tell ? 

Mess. The herald Lichas, his attendant, is proclaiming 
these things to numbers in the ox-grazing field. Hearing 
them from him, I rushed away, in order that, having first 

1 Those who wish for an account of the oracular doves of Dodona may- 
consult Herodotus, lib. ii. 55, where they will find an explanation scarcely 
less absurd than the original fable. Eustathius and the Scholiast both 
offer their conjectures on the point, without considering it at all requisite 
to be within the verge of probability. 

- Cf. (Ed. Tyr. 82 sq. B. 



191 — 224. TRACHINIiB. 209 

related them to you, I might gain sometHng at your hands, 
and acquire favour^ 

Dei. But how, if well he speed, is he himself absent ? 

Mess. Because, lady, he encounters some difficulty : for 
all the Melian people, standing round him in a circle, is ques- 
tioning him ; nor is it in his power to advance farther. Each 
wishing to learn fully the welcome news, will not let him go 
till he have heard to his satisfaction. Thus he, unwilling, 
is present with the willing ; but you will soon see him ap- 
pear. 

Dei. O Jove ! who presidest over the uncultured'' mead 
of j3Sta, thou hast bestowed on us, though late, the joy. 
Raise your acclaim, ye maids, both ye within the house, and 
ye without the court, since we now enjoy the eye of happy 
rumour beaming unexpectedly upon me. 

Ch. Burst forth through the palaces, with the shouts of 
joy around your hearths, whoever of you is a bridegroom^, 
and let the mingled shouts of the youths ascend to Apollo, 
our champion, the Lord of the graceful quiver ; and at the 
same time celebrate, ye virgins, Psean, Psean; and loudly 
celebrate his sister Diana Ortygia, the huntress of the stag, 
the goddess with her double torch*, and her attendant 
nymphs. I am transported ; nor will I disclaim the flute, 
oh sovereign of my soul I Lo ! the thyrsus rouses me up ; 
lo ! it inspires me, now hurrying my steps into the rivalry of 
the Bacchic votaries*. lo ! lo ! Paean ! Behold, behold, dear 
mistress, you may now see these things clearly before your face. 

^ The messenger is at all events abundantly candid in confessing his 
scurvy motive. 

2 Uncultured, in consequence of its being set apart and consecrated to 
the god. The epithet arofiov may also be translated " undevastated," 
which bears in a similar vpay a reference to its sanctity, as being spared, 
on that account, by the enemy in their hostile incursions. Tr. — Cf. Eurip. 
Hipp. 73, el CLKtiparov XeifiaivoQ. B. 

^ I am little satisfied vi^ith Dindorf's readings or punctuation, but have 
followed them closely, for the convenience of the scholar, who can alter 
according to taste. B. 

* Diana was represented in the ancient mysteries as bearing a torch in 
each hand. The epithet afi(p'nrvpov is generally supposed to have a refer- 
ence to these insignia ; but it may also be taken as descriptive of the 
splendour and brightness of the goddess, in her character of Luna. 

^ JiaK^(^iav ajjiiWav noto usu accusativi additura est, convertens me ad 
(Binulundum Bacchas. Herm. 



210 TRACIIINI^. 225—255. 

Dei. I see, dear women ; nor has the watchfulness of my 
eyes deceived me so as not to see this band : and I bid the 
herald hail, though late appearing, if the tidings be brings 
be of joy. 

LiCHAS. But well indeed have we come, and well, oh 
lady, are we hailed according to the merit of our actions^ 
for it needs must that a man who prospers should gain good 
words. 

Dei. O dearest of men, tell me fxrst, what I most desire, 
if I shall embrace Hercules alive. 

Li. I left him both in strength and life, blooming in health, 
•and not oppressed with disease, 

Dei. Where? — in his native or a foreign soil ? — speak. 

Li. There is a certain promontory of Euboea, where he is 
marking out altars, and sacrificing the fruits of his victories 
to Cenaean'^ Jove. 

Dei. In performance of a vow ? or on the injunction of 
some oracle ? 

Li. a vow, — when he took the country of these women 
you see before you, the devastated prey of his spear. 

Dei. But who, by the gods, are these ? and whose are 
,they ? for they are the objects of pity, if their misfortunes do 
not deceive me^. 

Li. These, when he destroyed the city of Euiytus, he se- 
lected a chosen possession for himself and the gods. 

Dei. Was it against this city that he was gone this vast 
and countless number of days ? 

Li. No ; but for the principal part of the time he was 
detained in Lydia, as he himself says, not free, but sold. 
But there ought not, oh lady, to be any displeasure at a cir- 
cumstance of which J ove may appear to have been the cause. 
For he, as he owns himself, being sold to Omphale, a bar- 
barian, completed a year in her service : and he was thus 
stung by having this disgrace attached to him, that, laying 

^ Verba kut epyov Krrjcnv ambigua sunt. Nam aut significant Kara 
"b tpyov, o KEKTrjCFaL, pro nuncio accejjto, aut Kara to ipyov, o KeKTr]fj.e9a 
quae est expugnatio ^chalise. Herm. 

2 The name is derived from Cenaeum, a promontory of Euboea, which 
was consecrated to this god. 

^ Dignge enim sunt miseratione, si de calamitatibus earum recte judico. 
Schaefer. 



256—293. TRACHINLffi. 211 

an oath, on himself, he swore that he would yet enslave, along 
with his wife and children, the man who brought this suf- 
fering home to him. Nor did he belie his word ; but when 
he was purified^, taking a foreign host, he goes to the city of 
Euiytus : for he accused him alone of mortals of being the 
author of this evil : who, when he came a guest to his house, 
being of old his friend, had much reviled him with M^ords, 
and much with the malignity of his mind, saying, that though 
he bore in his hands the inevitable arrows, he was inferior 
to his children in the trial of archery : and he says that he, 
a slave, ought to be treated with blows by a freeman ; and 
when he was heated with wine at the banquet, he drove him 
out. Being enraged at this treatment, when Iphitus^, after- 
wards came to the Tyrinthian hill, following the traces of 
some mares that had left his pastures, then while he had his 
eye tm-ned in one way, and his mind in another, he hm-led 
him down from the summit of the towering steep'. But Jove, 
the Olympian king, father of all, being enraged on account of 
this deed, sent him thence in slavery, nor brooked that he 
should slay Iphitus, alone of men, by guile. For had he 
openly assailed him, Jove would have forgiven him for justly 
vanquishing his opponent ; for the gods do not love injustice. 
But they who wantonly boasted with reviling tongue, are aR 
the inhabitants of the shades, and their city is captive. 
But these virgins, whom you behold, having met with an 
unenviable life, from an high estate, come to you : for thus 
at least yom* husband enjoined, and I, being faithful to him, 
execute his command. And when he shall have offered the 
holy sacrifices to his father Jove for the captm-e of the city, 
expect him to come himself : for this, of all a long tale of 
happy tidings, is the sweetest word to hear. 

Ch. Now, O queen, manifest joy accrues to you, both 
fi-om what is present, and from what you have learnt by 
this speech. 

Dei. And how should I not, when I hear of these pros • 

^ When he had made expiation for the murder of Iphitus, by com- 
pleting his year of bondage, 

2 One of the four sons of Eurytus. 

2 This was a very blackguard piece of business on the part of Hercules. 
It argues bad taste in the poet to introduce a story which tends so much 
to destroy our favourable impressions of his hero. 

p 2 



212 TRACHINIJ5U 294—322. 

perous fortunes of my husband, rejoice with all the just joy 
of my soul? There is strong necessity that my joy should keep 
pace with his success. Yet still fear dwells in those who 
consider things aright^, lest he, who is in prosperity, should 
at some moment stumble in his com-se. For a powerful sen- 
timent of compassion, my friends, has entered my bosom as 
I look on these ill-starred virgins, wandering in the land of 
strangers, afar from their homes, and bereft of their fathers, 
who in former days, perchance, were the offspring of high- 
born chiefs, but who now lead the life of slaves. O Jove, 
averter of my ills, may I never at any time see thee thus ad- 
vancing against my children, nor, if thou wait do aught, while 
I at least am yet alive ! Thus am I moved by fear, beholding 
these captives. O unhappy in thy lot, who of youthful vir- 
gins art thou ? — ^unmarried or a mother ? Yet, by your 
appearance, you are unacquainted with all this, but art one 
of noble birth. Lichas, of whom of mortals is this stranger 
the daughter ? Who was the mother that bore her ; Who 
was the father that begot her ? Declare it. For I on be- 
holding her, have pited her the most of these, inasmuch as 
she alone knows to feel for her situation*. 

Li. What do I know ? Why should you ask me ? Per- 
haps the offspring of parents who there are not amongst the 
meanest. 

Dei. Is she of the royal family? Some offspring of 
Eurytus. 

Li. I know not : for I did not make any gTcat inquiries. 

Dei. Nor have you learnt her name from some one of the 
companions of her way ? 

Li. By no means. I performed my task in silence. 

Dei. But do you, unhappy maid, speak to me yourself: 
since it is a sort of misfortune not to know you, at least who 
you are. 

Li. She will not now utter a word more than formerly, 

^ Toi<nv ev <7K07rovfisvoig recte vertit Brunckius: " Tamen inest his 
aliquis metus, si rem rite expendas." Quippe intelligitur prospera Her- 
culis fortuna, neque, ut Hcepfnerus et Billerbekius sibi persuaserant, ad 
puellas adstantes pertinet. Erfurdt. 

2 Quod prudentise specimen ediderit lole, ex contextu non patet; 
liberaque adeo conjectura lectori relinquitur, utrum lachrymis praesenns 
mali sensum testata sit, an vultu sereno et placido animi magnitudinem 
ostenderit, Musgrave. 



323—348. TRACHINI^. 213 

she who has not yet spoken much or little^, but, ever de- 
ploring the weight of her calamity, the wretched maid keeps 
shedding tears from the time that she left her wind-swept'' 
country. This circumstance is unfortunate indeed, for her- 
self at least, but it deserves pardon. 

Dei. Let her therefore be indulged, and let her go within 
thus as is most agreeable to her, nor, in addition to her pre- 
sent evils, let her receive from me at least a double pain : for 
that which she already feels is enough. And now let us all 
go home, that you at least may hasten where you please, 
and I may put things within in proper order. 

Mes. Here, at any rate, first wait for a little while, in 
order that you may learn apart from these, whom at least 
you conduct within ; and of what you have heard nothing 
may be fully made acquainted, too, with all that is proper to 
know : for I have the full intelligence of these things. 

Dei. What is it ? Why do you stay my steps^ ? 

Mes. Standing still, listen : for neither did you formerly* 
hear my w^ords in vain, nor do I think you shall now. 

Dei. Whether, in truth, shall I call those persons back 
again, or do you wish to speak to these virgins and to 
me? 

Mes. To you and these there is no restrictions, but suffer 
the others to remain away. 

Dei. And in fact they are gone, and let your news be 
signified. 

Mes; This man utters nothing of what he has just spoken 
according to the strictness of truth : but either now he is 
false, or formerly was present no true messenger. 

^ Exspectabat Deianira, responsuram esse lolen. At ilia tacet. Id 
videns Lichas dicit: ovr' dpa ovSev Swicrei yXuxrcrav k^ 'icrov rep ye Trpocr, 
6ev X9^^V '• 1^'^hil ergo differet ah se ipsa loquendo, (i. e. semper eadem 
erit, constcinter servando silentio,) <Bque ut antea fecit. Herm. 

2 " Airjvenov, ventis perflatam, i. e. desertam, ut bene interpretatur 
Scholiastes." Musgrave. From this we must venture to dissent. The 
native city of lole is mentioned, in another place, as " the lofty " jEchalia, 
which will sufficiently account for its being exposed to a little rough 
weather, without having recourse to the '' interpretatio " of the scholiast, 
or Musgrave his approving ally. 

2 But see Hermann and Wunder. B. 

^ This messenger is the same officious person who came before to 
announce the arrival of Lichas. 



214 TRAClIINIiE. 349—384. 

Dei. What say you ? Clearly deliver me all that you 
have in your mind ; for, as to what you have spoken, igno- 
rance possesses me. 

Mes. I heard this man saying, while many witnesses were 
present, that, for the sake of this virgin, Hercules both de- 
stroyed Eurytus and lofty-towered ^chalia ; and that Love 
alone of the gods had moved him to raise his spear in this 
war ; not his adventures in Lydia, nor his serv'ice of toil with 
Omphale, nor the headlong death of Iphitus ; [but love] 
which^ he now setting aside, contradicts his former statement. 
But when he did not persuade the father to give up his 
daughter that he might enjoy her secret embraces, having 
devised some slight ground of complaint and quarrel, he leads 
an expedition against the country of this damsel, in which he 
said that Eurytus was lord of the throne ; and he slays the 
king her father, and has sacked the city. And now he comes, 
O lady, as you see, sending her to this palace, not without 
design, nor as a slave ; expect not this : nor is it likely, since 
he hath been inflamed with desire. It seemed therefore good 
to me, O queen, to disclose to you everything which I have 
chanced to learn from the herald : and many in the middle 
of the Trachinian forum heard this at the same time equally 
with myself, so as to bring it home to him. But if I do not 
say what is agreeable, I am sorrj^ ; yet still I have spoken 
the truth. 

jyEi. Ah unhappy me ! in what circumstances am I placed? 
"What secret bane have I received under my roof? O 
wretched woman that I am ! Is she then of an obscui'e 
name, as he that conducted her sw^ore ? 

Mes. Surely is she most glorious both in appearance and 
birth^, being by birth the daughter of Eurytus, she was for- 
merly called lole, whose parents he could not tell, having, 
forsooth, made no inquiry. 

Ch. Let not all the wicked perish, but him whoever practises 
base fraud unworthy of his character*. 

1 dv, scil. Tov tpiora. Still, I cannot help thinking that this verse 
should be placed immediately after v. 355. Perhaps something is want- 
ing. B. 

2 This verse is assigned by all modem editors to the Messenger, and 
not connected with Deianira's words. B. 

2 The Chorus evidently utter this malediction to show their indignation 



385 — 414. TRACHINI^» 215 

Dei. AVhat, ye women, ought to be done ? for I am driven 
out of my mind by this present intelligence. 

Ch. Go and interrogate the man, since he will quickly 
tell the truth, if you appear inclined to question him by 
force. 

Dei. Well, I go : for you do not advise without judg- 
ment. 

Ch. But shall we reman ? or what is it proper to do ? 

Dei. Remain ; since this man, not summoned by my mes- 
sengers, but of his owm accord, is passing out of the house. 

Li. What is it fitting, O lady, that I, retui"ning, should 
say to Hercules? Inform me, since, as you see, I am 
going. 

Dei. Do you, thus coming after so long a time, so quicldy 
depart before we renew our conversation ? 

Li. If you wish to make any inquiry, I am present. 

Dei. Do you deal in the honesty of truth ? 

Li. Great Jove be my witness, at kast in whatever I 
know. 

Dei. Who, in truth, is the woman whom you come con- 
ducting ? 

Li. a woman of Euboea : but from whom she is sprung 
I cannot tell. 

Mes. Ho you, look this way : to whom do you think you 
speak? 

Li. And you, for what purpose do you ask me this 
question ? 

Mes. Dare to answer, if you are wise, M^hat I ask you. 

Li. To Deiauira the queen, daughter of CEneus, and wife 
of Hercules, [if my sight deceive me not,] and my mistress. 

Mes. This was the very thing I sought to learn from you. 
Do you acknowledge that this is your mistress ? 

Li. Yes : for she is so with just right. 

Mes. What then? What punishment do you consider 
yourself worthy to sufier, if you be found untrue to her ? 

Li. How untrue ? ^\Tiat wiles are you attempting? 

Mes. None : you however are doing this in a very gi-eat 
degree. 

Li. I go ; and I was a fool to listen so long to you. 

at the duplicity of Lichas, though they justly take the opportunity of 
having a slap at the master while they abuse the man. 



21v5 TRACHINLffi. 415—445 

Mes. Not at loast before being shortly examined you shall 
"make answer. 

Li. Speak, if you wish, anything ; for you are not much 
inclined to silence. 

Mes. Do you know the captive whom you have brought 
to this palace ? 

Li, I say I do, but why do you inquire ? 

Mes. Did you not say that you were conducting lole, the 
daughter of Eurytus, her whom you now look upon as un- 
known ? 

Li. Amongst what sort of men ? who, and whence coming, 
will bear witness to you that present he heard these words 
from me ? 

Mes. Amongst many of the citizens. A great crowd in 
the middle of the Trachinian forum heard, full sure, these 
words from my mouth. 

Li. Very true : I said that I heard this at least. But it 
is not the same thing to state one's notion, and to maintain 
an assertion positively. 

Mes. What notion ? Did not you, speaking under an oath, 
declare that you brought this damsel as a wife for Her- 
■cules ? 

Li. I talk of a wife ! Tell me, my dear mistress, by the 
gods, who in the world is this stranger ? 

Mes. One who present heard you assert, that all the city 
was subdued though love of this woman, and that the Lydian 
dame was not the cause of its destruction, but the love of 
lole bursting forth^. 

Li. Let this man, O queen, begone: for to babble with, a 
madman is not the part of the wise. 

Dei. Do not, by Jove, who rolls his thunders along ^ta's 
lofty forest, falsify thy tale ; for thou wilt not tell it to a woman 
of a base spirit, nor one who does not know the disposition 03 
men, that it is not by nature formed to take pleasure always 
iti the same things. Whoever indeed resists love, like a 
pugilist, hand to hand, is unwise. For Love rules even the 
gods as he pleases, and myself indeed ; and why not another, 
such at any rate as me? So that if I blame my husband, 

^ Musgrave proposes, in place of (pavdg, to read a<pa\i'iQ, frustrntus, 
which would be a decided improvement, were there any good authority for 
its adoption. 



446—485. TRACHINii:. 217 

possessed by this disease, or this maiden, the cause of no dis- 
honour nor e\'il to me, I am mad in the extreme. It is not so. 
But, if learning it from him, you feign this tale, you learn no 
good instruction ; and if you thus teach yourself, when you 
wish to be good, you shall be proved to be bad. But speak 
the whole truth ; since for a freeman to be called a liar is a 
disgraceful stain attaching to his character. Nor is it possible 
that you should escape detection ; for there are many to whom 
you have spoken who will repeat your words to me. And if 
you fear indeed, you fear foolishly ; since not to know it might 
give me pain ; but as to know it, where is the harm ? Has not 
Hercules, one husband, already married several other wives*? 
and no one of them has yet heard from me, at least, evil word 
or reproach; nor shall she, even though he be deeply imbued 
with her love, since I pitied her most of all when I looked on 
her, because her beauty has been the ruin of her life, and she, 
in her unhappy fate, has unv>'illingly brought to destruction 
and slavery her nati^'e land. But let these things speed on 
with a propitious gale; and I desire you to be deceitful to 
others, but never to be guilty of falsehood to me^. 

Ch, Obey this lady, recommending what is good ; and you 
shall afterwards not blame your compliance, and shall acqidre 
my gratitude. 

Li. But, O my dear mistress, since I perceive you, a mortal, 
have thoughts becoming a mortal, and are not void of 
judgment, I will tell you the M'hole truth, nor conceal aught. 
For the fact is so as he asserts. A vehement j^assion for this 
damsel once on a time thrilled through Hercules, and on her 
account was her native -^chalia, in wdde destruction, laid low 
by the spear. And these circumstances, for it is proper to 
tell that which is in his favour, he neither bade me keep close, 
nor ever denied : but I myself, queen, fearing lest I should 
pain yom- breast by these tidings, was guilty of this error, if 
in aught you deem it an error. And now, since you know 
all the story, both for his sake and your own equally, bear this 

^ Such were Megara, Auge, and Astydameia ; not to mention the fifty 
virgins, whom, to crown his labours, he took to wife in one night. 

^ This curious sentiment may be compared with the sentiment of an 
Irish priest to his refractory son. " O Stephan, Stephan, how often have 
I told ye that telling a lie to me was quite different from telling a lie to 
any one else!" From a tale by Mrs. S. C. Hall in the " Amulet." B. 



218 TRACHINIiE. 430—518. 

woman with patience, and resolve to confirm the words which 
you have spoken concerning her. For he who bore the palm 
in everything else by his valour, is altogether worsted by his 
love for this maid. 

Dei. But thus both do I incline so as to do these things, 
and I will not bring on myself a voluntary malady, maintain- 
ing an unequal contest with the gods. But let us go within 
the palace, that you may both hear the answers which I charge 
you to bear, and tal^e the gifts which it behoves us to prepare, 
in suitable return to his gifts : for it were not right that you, 
who came with such a great train, should return empty- 
handed. 

Chokus. Venus ever bears off a certain mighty power of 
victory ; and the loves of the gods indeed I pass over ; nor do 
I sing how she beguiled the son of Saturn ; nor Pluto, the king 
of night; nor Neptune, the shaker of the earth. But to gain 
Deianira as a bride, certain well-practised^ suitors entered the 
lists respecting her hand'^, and went through the strife of a 
battle, rife with blows and wrestling^. The one indeed was a 
mighty river, in the quadruped form of a bull with towering 
horns, Acheloiis from the OEniadge : and the other came from 
Bacchic Thebes, lightly wielding his bending^ bow, and shafts, 
and club, the son of Jove ; who then, burning for her embrace, 
rushed^ to the struggle. And the beauteous Venus*, alone 
present in the midst, sits umpire o'er the fray. Then was 
there the din of blows, and of the bow, and of the horns, of 

* afi(piyvoi=afi^ide^i(n, Trepids^wi, Liddell, s. v. after Ellendt. B. 

2 ** Ilpo ydjxcjv. Frigidissimum foret ante nuptias, nee Trpo pro Trepl 
accipi sinit aut versus superior, aut Grsecorum usus." Musgrave. " Ilpo 
■ydjJKov est pro potiundis nuptiis." Erfurdt. Tr. — T have followed 
Erfurdt. B. 

2 Wunder has well seen that TrayKovira refers to the " lucta." B. 

^ I have rendered TraXivrova " bending," as denoting it in its bent or 
unbent state indifferently. See a most satisfactory explanation of the 
double meaning of the word in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon. B. 

^ doXkeig, usually of several persons, here KaTaxpnfTTLKUiQ £7ri Svolv, 
Schol. B. 

^ " Non intelligendum de Dea Paphia, quse neque evXeKrpoQ dici solet, 
neque coram certamini interfuisse a mythologis traditur. Est igitur 
KvirpiQ nihil aliud quam tuvi], connubium sive conjux. Totum locum sic 
interpretor: sola autem puella formosa in medio assidens certamini 
prcserat: i. e. nullius ^pajSsvrov jussu, sed puellse duntaxat amore inci- 
tati, in arenam descendebant." Musgrave. 



519—554. TRACHINI^. 219 



the bull mingled ; then were there the locked intertwinings 
ladder- wise\ and deadly blows of the forehead, and groans'' 
from both. And the soft and beauteous nymph sat on a con- 
spicuous mound awaiting him who should be her spouse; 
[with all a mother's feelings I tell the tale^,] and her eye that 
fired the contest, sorrowfully expected its issue; and away 
from her mother she straightway departed, like some young 
deserted heifer. 

Dei. Whilst, my friends, the stranger indoors is conversing 
with the captive virgins, as about to depart, I have, in the 
mean time, privily come without the gates to you, partly to 
explain to you what I have devised with my hands, and partly 
to bewail, along with you, the sufferings I endure. For I am 
of opinion that I have received this captive, no longer a 
maiden, but a wife, as a mariner his freight, so I this 
merchandise to the ruin of my peace : and now we two, beneath 
one coverlet, await his embrace. Such a reward has Hercules, 
that was called my faithful and good husband, sent me for my 
housekeeping for so long a time. But I indeed do not know 
how to be angry with him, so oft afflicted with this disease ; 
and yet again to dwell in the house along with her, sharing 
the same marriage, what woman could endure*? For I see her 
youth indeed advancing to ripeness, and mine decaying ; from 
the former of which the eye is wont to cull flowers, but from 
the latter to turn away the steps. This therefore I dread, lest 
Hercules should be called indeed my spouse®, but be the 
husband of the younger wife. But enough ; for it is not pro- 
per, as I said, for a woman possessed of prudence to give way 
to anger ; but in what way I gain a release from my troubles, 

1 Hermann cleverly explains this species of wrestling, in which one 
turned his adversary from him, and mounted on his back, referring to 
Ovid. Met. ix. 51, sqq. B. 

2 " Sroj^of. Cicero hanc vocem in Quaest. Tusc. II. 23, illustrat: 
pugiles vero, ait, quum feriunt adversarium, in jactandiscsestibus ingemis- 
cunt, non quod doleant animove succumbant, sed quod profundenda voce 
omne corpus intenditur venitque plaga vehementior. Idem faciunt 
athletae." Billerbeck. 

3 Or, " I tell the tale as her mother told it to me." Tr.— Wunder 
condemns this and the following three lines. B. 

^ O quam cruentus feminas stimulat dolor, 

Cum patuit una pellici et nuptge domus. Senec. Here. ^t. 233. 
5 ** irSaiQ conjux est connubio junctus, dvifp is quo uxor fruitur/' 
Herm. B. 



220 'i'RACHlNl^. 555—597. 

that I will explain to you. I had a gift once on a time of old 
bestowed by an ancient Centaur, concealed in a brazen urn ; 
which, while yet a girl, I took from the death-wound of the 
shaggy-bosomed Nessus, who, for hire, bore mortals in his 
arms over the deep flow of the river Evenus, neither plying 
with the speeding oar, nor with the sails of.a bark. He, bear- 
ing me also on his shoulders, when first at my father's bidding 
I followed Hercules as a bride, as he reached the middle of 
the stream, touched me with lewd hands ; but I screamed out ; 
and the son of Jove immediately turning, sent from his hands 
a winged arrow ; and through his chest, even into the lungs, 
it whizzed. And these were the words that the dying Centaur 
spoke: "Daughter of aged QEneus, such profit shall you 
derive, if you obey me, from this passage, because you are the 
last I bear across the river : for if you take with your hands 
the curdled gore from my wound, where the monstrous Hydra 
of Lerna has steeped the arrow with its black venom, this will 
prove to you a soothing charm over the mind of Hercules, so 
that he shall not, looking on any woman, feel more affection 
for her than for you." Revolving, my friends, this counsel in 
my mind, (for in the house, after his death, it remained care- 
fully shut up,) I have steeped this garment, applying whatever 
he, while alive, commanded; and the task is completed. But 
may I neither know nor learn the deeds of evil daring ; and 
those women who attempt them, I hate : yet if we can any- 
how get the better of this damsel by philtres and soothing 
charms essayed on Hercules, this plan has been well contrived, 
unless I appear to you to make a vain attempt ; but if I do, it 
shall be desisted from. 

Ch. But if there be any faith in the trial, you seem to us 
not to have determined amiss. 

Dei. Thus at least my faith rests, so that it is accompanied, 
indeed, by my opinion of success ; but I have never yet made 
acquaintance with the experiment. 

Ch. But it is necessary to obtain the knowledge by doing 
the action ; since, though you seem to have, you cannot have 
the knowledge, without making the trial. 

Dei. But we shall soon know : for I see the herald already 
without the gates ; and he will quickly go. Only let our secret 
be faithfully preserved by you ; for if you do even what is base 
in the dark, you shall never fall into shame. 



598—647. TRACHINI^. 221 

Li. What is to be done ? tell me, O daughter of (Eneus, 
since we are already tardy by long delay. 

Dei. But I have been preparing for this very thing, while 
you have been talking to these strangers within, that you bear 
for me this well- woven robe, a gift to that hero from my hand. 
And, presenting it, direct him that no one of mortals before 
him put it on his person, nor that ray of the sun behold it, 
nor sacred shrine, nor flame from the hearth, before that, 
standing conspicuous, he display it bright to the gods, on 
some day marked by the sacrifice of bulls. For thus I vowed, 
if I ever should see him safe at home, or hear of his return, 
that with full ritual observance I w^ould deck him in this vest, 
and exhibit him to the gods, a new sacrificer in a new 
garment. And of this you shall bear to him a token, which 
he will easily recognise, when he casts his eye on this seal. 
But go : and first observe this rule, not to desire, being a 
messenger, to do more than you are required ; and in the next 
place, act so that his favour towards you, uniting with mine, 
instead of single, may become double. 

Li . But, if I faithfuUy exercise this art of Hermes, I wiU 
not be guilty of any failure in your trust, so as not bearing 
this vessel, to show it him in its present state, and to add 
faithfully the words which you have spoken. 

Dei. You may now, if you choose, depart : for you also 
know of the afiairs in the house, in what state they are. 

Li. I both know, and I will report, that they are well. 

Dei. And you know too, having seen my reception of the 
stranger, that I welcomed her in a friendly manner. 

Li. So that my heart was amazed with joy. 

Dei. What else indeed should you relate? for I fear lest 
you first tell my longing desire for him, before you know if 
the afiection be mutual. 

Chokus. ye who dwell by the warm baths bordering on 
the station of the ships and the rocks ; and ye by the cliffs of 
uilEta, and the middle of the Melian lake, and the shore of the 
virgin with golden shaft, where the Pylian assemblies of the 
Greeks convene, the flute, with its beauteous notes, ere long 
returns to you, breathing forth no impleasing melody, but 
such as may challenge the Ip'e of the divine muse. For the 
son of Jove and Alcmena, bearing the spoils of every virtue, 
hies him home ; whom, absent from his country and afar ov?r 



222 TRACHINI^. 648—685. 

the sea, we waited for all ignorant of his fate, through the full 
space of twelve long months. And his beloved spouse in 
misery, in saddest misery at heart, ever drenched with tears, 
kept pining away : — but now hath Mars, being maddened by 
desire, brought to a close our day of sorrow. Let him come ! 
let him come ! let not the bark that bears him on with many 
an oar stop in its course, before that he effect his way to this 
city, having left the altar of the island where he is said to be 
sacrificing; whence let him hasten through the whole day, 
being wrapt in the robe deeply anointed with persuasion, 
according as the Centaur directed. 

Dei. How I fear, O virgins, lest all that I have just done, 
be done by me beyond what is right. 

Ch. O Deianira, daughter of QEneus, M^hat has happened ? 

Dei. I know not: but I fear lest I shall quickly appear to 
have wrought a great evil from the persuasion of good hope. 

Ch. Surely it cannot be any thing about your gifts to 
Hercules ? 

Dei. Yes, most particularly; so that I would never advise 
any one to act with promptness in an uncertain event. 

Ch. Tell us, if it may be told, from what circumstance your 
fears arise. 

Dei. a circumstance has occurred, of such a nature that I 
shall describe an unexpected marvel, ye damsels, for you to 
hear^ For that, with which I was just anointing the sump- 
tuous garment'^, the white wool from the snowy fleece of the 
sheep, that has disappeared, consumed by none of those within, 
but corroded by itself, it wastes away and smoulders down the 
surface of the slab^. But that you may know the whole way 
in which this was done, I shall extend my narration to greater 
length. For of those charges with which the wild Centaur, 
while suffering in his side by the bitter barb, had tutored me, 
I let slip not one, but preserved them like an' indelible writing 
on a brazen tablet. And thus it was commanded me, and I 
obeyed it, that I should preserve this drug unexposed to the 

^ On the construction see Wander's clever note. B. 

2 ^''Evdvrrjpa 7r£7rXov, i. e. xiruyva, tunicam, vestem interiorem. Hse 
enim ivi^vovro, superiores {yXalvai se. xXa/iw^£c, et hujusmodi aliae) 
TTtptejSaXXovro." Musgrave. Tr. — But see Hermann. B. 

2 Or, "■ smooth stone," where she had laid out the wool to dry. Ta. 
Hermann says *' gravel," but what becomes of uk^uq ? B. 



686—726. TRACHlNliE. 223 

fire, and untouched by the warm sunbeam in those close 
recesses, until I should somehow apply it in fresh unction. 
And this I did : and now, when the operation was to be tried, 
I secretly, indoors within the house, spread it on the garment 
with a lock of wool, having drawn it from the fleece of one of 
mj own sheep ; and folding up the gift, I placed it secure from 
the sun in a hollow chest, as you saw. But, going within, I 
see a sight that cannot be described, and impossible for mortal 
to conceive. For I chanced to throw the wool torn from the 
sheep, with which I was smearing the robe, into the blaze of 
mid-day, the rays of the sun ; and as it became warm, it all 
melts into nothing, and wastes to dust on the ground, chiefly 
resembling, in appearance, the dust from the saw, should you 
chance to see it, in the cutting of wood. In this way it lay 
fallen ; and from the ground where it was spread out, there 
boil up clots of foam, like as when the rich juice of mellow 
autumn is poured on the earth from the vine of Bacchus. So 
that I, wretched, do not know to what thoughts to turn : and 
I see that I have wrought a dreadful deed. For whence at all, 
and in return for what, should the dying Centaur do an act of 
kindness to me, for whom he perished ? It cannot be so : but 
■wishing to destroy him who shot him, he beguiled me ; of 
which I too late acquire the knowledge, when it is no longer 
of avail. For I alone, if I am not deceived in my mind, I, 
wi-etched woman, shall be the cause of his death. For I know 
that the arrow that gave the wound was fatal even to the 
divine Cliiron\ and destroys every living thing it touches : and 
how shall not the black venom of the gore, issuing from the 
wound of the Centam*, slay also Hercules ? In my opinion, 
too sure, it will. And yet I am determined, if he fall, that at 
the same moment* I too shall die along with him : for to live 
in evil report is not to be endured by a woman who prefers to 
every thing else a nature abhorrent of baseness. 

Ch. It follows, of course, that there should be horror at 
dreadful deeds; but it is not right to judge of our expectations 
before the event. 

Dei. In dishonourable designs there is no hope which may 
conciliate any confidence. 

» This story is to be found in Ovid's Fasti, Book V. 379. 
2 "Wunder's conjecture uKfiy for opfiij seems probable. B. 



224 TRACHINLE^ 728—756. 

Ch. But for those wlio fall into involuntary error, there is 
a softening of anger, which it is fitting you should meet. 

Dei. Such comfort may he suggest, who does not share in 
the evil, but to whom there is at home no grief^. 

Ch. It were as well for you to suppress in silence the rest 
of your words, except you are going to disclose something to 
your son ; for he is present who formerly went away in search 
of his father. 

Hyl.* O mother ! how of three things I would choose one, 
either that you were dead, or that if you lived you were called 
the mother of some other son, or from some whence you might 
acquire better feelings than those you now possess. 

Dei. What deed of mine, my son, excites this abhorrence? 

Hyl. Know that you have this day slain your husband, I 
mean my father. 

Dei. Woe is me ! what tale, my son, do you bear ? 

Hyl. The tale of that which it is impossible can be 
undone ; for who is able to imcreate that which has once 
appeared ? 

Dei. How say you, my son? From what mortal having 
gained this information, do you assert that I have done such 
a hateful deed? 

Hyl. I myself mtnessed, with my eyes, the grievous suffer- 
ings of my father, and I did not hear it by report. 

Dei. And where did you meet with him, and where present 
by his side ? 

Hye. If it is requisite you should know, it behoves me to 
tell you all. When he departed^, after having destroyed the 
renowned city of Eurytus, bearing with him the trophies and 
first fruits of victory ; there is a certain sea- washed shore of 
Eubcea, [called] the Censean promontory, where he con- 
secrates to his father Jove altars and the foliage of a sacred 
grove : there I, with longing joy, first beheld him. And when 
he was about to offer up the sacrifice of many victims, there 

1 *' Facile omnes, cum valemus, recta consilia segrotis domus: 

Tu, si hie sis, aliter sentias." Terent. Andr. II. i. 9. 

2 Hyllus has been away at Cenasum, and back again, during an hour's 
conversation between his mother and the Chorus. This is a violation of 
the unity of time with a vengeance. 

3 Recte hie 69' pro ors, non pro o9i, accipitur: gunm profecfus est 
expugnata (Echalia, Cenceum est, ubi sacra fecit : pro his: quum pro- 

fectu est, sacra fecit in Ceruso. Hermann, 



757 802. TRACiiixi^. 22*; 

C9.me a herald from home, his servant Lichas, bearing your 
gift, the deadly garment, which he putting on as you directed, 
slays twelve bulls, of perfect shape, the first fruits of his spoils ; 
but he brought in all to the altar a mingled herd of an hundred 
cattle. And at first indeed the wretched man, rejoicing in his 
robe and ornaments, addressed his vows with a cheerful mind : 
but when the bloody flame blazed forth from the sacred ofier- 
ings and oily wood, sweat burst out on his skin, and the tunic 
clung to his body, closely glued, as if by some artificer's hand, 
to every limb ; and convulsive wrenching of the bones suc- 
ceeded. Then, as the envenomed gore of the accursed Hydra 
fed upon him, he called on the unfortunate Lichas, him who 
had no share in your guilt, by what treachery he had brought 
the garment : and he, ill-starred wretch, all-ignorant, said it 
was the g-ift of you alone, as it had been sent. And he, as he 
heard these words, and a piercing spasm assailed his lungs, 
seizing him by the foot, where the ancle bends, dashes him on 
a rock, washed all around by the sea ; and the white brains 
gush out from the middle of the head, the blood being 
scattered around, and the hair with it^. And all the people 
shouted aloud with lamentation, the hero being afflicted with 
this pest, and the herald being slain ; but no one dared to 
approach Hercules. For he was writhing in the pain, both 
lying on the ground and standing up, shouting and shrieking : 
and the rocks around resounded, the mountain headlands of 
the Locrians, and the promontories of Eubcea. But when he 
grew faint, oft dashing himself, the wi-etched man, on the 
ground, and howling with loud clamour reviling the evil 
nuptials of your unhappy couch, and the alliance of (Eneus, 
how he had contracted it to the ruin of his life, then raising 
his distorted eyes from the mist settling over them, he saw me 
shedding tears amidst the numerous crowd, and looking on 
me, he calls me: "O my son, come hither, do not shun my 
miseries, not even though it be necessary for you to die along 
with me, your dying father : but bear me away, and by all 
m.eans, if possible, place me there, where no one of mortals 
shall behold me ; and if you feel pity, transport me, at least, 
from this land^ with all speed, nor let me die here." When 

I have, with the translator, followed Brunck's emendation, KpuTog 
Sh XevKov fx. iKp. [.isaov, dtaffrr. aifxaroQ KofUfg 9' bpLov. B. 

^ •' Maxima omnium cupiebat Hercules, ut solus, nemine mortalium 

a 



226 TRAClllxM^. 803—834. 

he had urged this request, we placed him in the middle of a 
ship, and brought him, bellowing in agony, with difficulty to 
these shores ; ai^d you shall presently see him, either alive or 
newly dead. In such devices and deeds against my father, O 
mother, have you been detected, for which may penal Justice 
and the avenging Fury repay you : this, if it be lawful at 
least, I imprecate : but it is lawful, since you towards me have 
cast away all law, having slain a hero the noblest of all on 
earth, such another as you shall never behold, 

Ch. Why do you depart in silence? Do you not know 
that by preserving silence you confirm the charge of your 
accuser r 

Hyl. Suffer her to go ; may there be a fair wind to her 
departing to a distance from my sight. For why is it neces- 
sary to cherish the empty sound of a mother's name, since she 
in nothing acts like a mother? But let her go where she 
chooses ; and the delight that she has afibrded my father, that 
same may she herself enjoy. 

Chorus. Behold, ye virgins, how quickly hath advanced to 
its completion, the heaven-sent decree of ancient oracular 
prescience, which announced, that when the twelfth year 
should arrive at its close, in the fulness of months, there 
should ensue a respite from his toils to Jove's genuine son ; 
and, without swerving, it is speeding on this doom in its 
course. For how can he who beholds not the light, endure 
any longer the servitude of toil, when dead^ r For if him, in 
the bloody death-cloud* of the Centaur, fate, brought to pass 
by crafty means, envenom ; in his side the jDoison rankling, 
•which death and the spotted serpent gave birth to ; how shall 

prsesente, mortem obiret : proximum ab eo erat, ut ex Euboea saltern ante 
mortem aveheretur, ne ^chaliensibus gaudii materiem prseberet, ut bene 
judicat Scholiastes. Hoc igitur impensius quam alteram rogat: At si 
misericordia tariff eris, saltern tu me ex hac reffione deportari cura.'* 
Musgrave. 

^ But Wunder's emendation <bCjQ 'in ttot in ttoviov ixoi Xarpeiav, is 
very ingenious and plausible. B. 

2 (poivig, v(.(pk\q. appears to mean tbe darkness that death would soon 
bring upon the eyes of Hercules (cf. 794, tot Ik 7rpo(Jsdpov Xiyvvog 
SidaTpofpov 'OtpQaXjxbv apaf),and if we take ctvdyKa in its ordinary sense 
of "fate, necessity," and render SoXottoioq " working by stealthy means," 
or in a similar way, I think the difficulty of this passage will be re- 
moved. B. 



835—873. TRACHINliE. 227 

he behold another day than the present, being racked by the 
horrible spectre^ of the Hydra? and, at the same time, the 
deadly pangs produced by the guileful words of the dark and 
shaggy Nessus, torture him with their burning throbs. 
"Wherefore she, wretched M'oman, seeing the great and sudden 
bane of new nuptials hastening to the house, did not perceive'* 
that the counsel proceeded from a deceitful pui-pose, with a 
destructive issue^. Sure, somewhere in misery, she is groan- 
ing ; sure, somewhere she is shedding the fresh dew of fast- 
falling tears. But his approaching death points the way to a 
secret and deep calamity*. The fount of tears hath burst forth. 
The disease envelops him : oh, ye gods, such a sufiering, for 
one to pity, as never befel the illustrious Hercules^ from his 
enemies. Oh, woe for the black point of his champion spear, 
which then didst bring his new- won bride from lofty -^chalia ! 
But Venus, executing her ministry in silence, hath clearly 
appeared the cause of all. 

Semi-ch. Whether am I deceived, or do I hear some 
lamentation newly bursting forth in the house ? What shall 
I say? 

Semi-ch. Some one utters within no doubtful wail, but 
one of deep sorrow; and something new happens to the 
house. 

Semi-ch. But do you perceive the old woman, how, in an 
unusual way, and with contracted brow, she comes to us^ 
about to signify some intelligence ? 

Nurse. virgins, how has that gift which was sent to 
Hercules been the beginning to us of no small evils ! 

Ch. What new event, old woman, do you tell ? 



1 I am very doubtful about Wunder's conjecture vdfiaTi for (pd(7- 
jiari. B. 

2 Schol. ov avvTiKiv, cf. v. 580, Ttgoo^aXovQ oaa t^v kuvoq ilTvSy 
and Lobeck on Phrynich. p. 282. Wunder has altered the text to 7r()oc£- 
Xa/3£j/,which he supports with some ingenuity. B. 

2 See Liddell, s. v. avvaXkayi]. B. 

^ Implying, that in case of the death of Hercules, Deianira would not 
survive him. 

* The translators read 'HpajcXea, which is in a few MSS. In Liddell's 
Lexicon, dya/cXtirov is joined with tvclOoq, which would mean, " such a 
too-memorable suffering of Hercules, worthy for men to pity, hath be- 
fallen," according to Dindorf's text. B. 

Q 2 



228 TRACHINI^. 874—906. 

NuR. Deianira has gone the last way of all, without 
moving the foot. 

Ch. Surely not as dead ? 

NuR. You have heard all. 

Ch. Is the wretched woman dead ? 

NuK. You hear it a second time. 

Ch. Wretched, ruined woman ! in what way do you say 
that she died? 

Nun. In a most miserable way, as regards at least the 
deed. 

Ch. Tell, oh woman, what death she met. 

NuR. She destroyed herself. 

Ch. What rage or what madness urged her to take up this 
point of a cruel weapon. How did she contrive alone to effect 
death in addition to death^ ? 

NuR. By the wound of the moumfiil steel. 

Ch. Did you look, oh wretched woman, on this outrage ? 

NuR. I looked on, as being in truth near her side. 

Ch. 'V^Tiat was it ? how — quick declare. 

NxjR. She herself by her own hand does the deed. 

Ch. What do you say ? 

NuR. That which is certain. 

Ch. This new bride has produced a mighty fury to this 
house. 

NuR. Too sure, indeed? but still more, if» present and 
near, you had beheld what she did, would you have pitied 
her. 

Ch. And did any woman's hand dare to do these deeds ? 

NuR. Yes — and terribly : but you shall learn the circum- 
stances, so as to agree with me. When she entered by her- 
self within the palace, and saw her son in the court, spreading 
garments over the hollow litter, in order that he might return 
to meet his father, concealing herself where none should see 
her, she shrieked out, as she fell before the altars, that she 
had become desolate, and wept v/hen she touched any of the 
instruments which, wretched woman ! she was wont to use : 
and roaming here and there through the palace, if she chanced 



^ I have followed Dindorf according to the proposed plan, but the 
reader must look to Hermann and Wunder for other arrangements of the 
text, I will not say satisfactory ones. B. 



907—952. TRACHINT^. 229 

to see the person of some loved domestic*, the unhappy woman 
wept at the sight, herself arraigning her own fortune, and her 
sterile existence for the future. But when she desisted from 
these complaints, I see her suddenly rushing to the chamber 
of Hercules; and, concealed in the shade, I watched her with 
secret eye : and I behold her casting the outspread garments 
on the couch of Hercules. But when she had finished this 
task, leaping up, she sate dowTi in the middle of the bed, and 
giving vent to the warm fountains of tears, spoke : " O bed, 
and scene of my nuptial joys, for the future now farewell, 
since you shall never again receive me to repose on this 
couch." Having spoken these words, with quick hand she 
unfastens, her robe where the clasp, wrought in gold, was 
fastened in front of the breast, and she laid bare all her side 
and her left shoulder. And I, running as fast as I was able, tell 
to her son the deeds she devised: and while we hasten thither, 
and hither we see her wounded by the double-edged sword, in 
the side, beneath the liver and the heart. But her son, when he 
beheld her, shrieked ; for the wretched youth perceived that 
she had put her hand to this deed in passion, being too late 
informed of what had taken place at home, — how she imwil- 
lingly had done this at the instigation of the Centaur. Here- 
upon, her mihappy son wailing for her, neither omitted aught 
of lamentation, nor ceased to bestow kisses on her lips, but 
stretching himself out by her side by side, he lay deeply 
mourning that he had rashly wounded her with a cruel accu- 
sation, — and weeping, because that he should be at once 
deprived of two, his father and his mother. Such is the state 
of circumstances here, so that if any one count on two davs 
or more, he is foolish ; for there is no morrow, before he pa'ss 
without misfortune the present day. 

Chorus, Over which shall I first raise my lamentation ? 
It is difficult for me, a wretched being, to decide which has 
been consummated in most utter ruin^. The one indeed, we 
at present behold in the palace, and the other we are on the 
eve of expectation of beholding^ : and it is the same thing to 

1 Compare the exquisite description of the death of Alcestis, in Eur. 
Ale. 178, sqq. B. 

- See Wunder. B. 
Hermann reads fiikofxtv, which Dindorf receives. Erfurdt and 
Wunder fiivonev, which seems preferable. B. 



230 TRACHINIit. 953—1000. 

have and to be about to have. Oh that some gale of wind, 
blowing in favourable direction from the heart of the house, 
would bear me away from this spot, that I may not die in 
dismay as soon as I once behold the valiant son of Jove : 
since in incurable pain, they say he is advancing* before the 
palace, an unspeakable marvel. In near, therefore, and no 
distant anticipation, have I mourned like the nightingale of 
plaintive note : for here comes the attendant procession of 
strangers. Where are they bearing him? As if taking care 
of a friend, each lifts his slow noiseless steps. Alas ! he, 
speechless, is borne along. Whether must we deem him dead 
or asleep ? 

Hyl. Woe is me for thee, oh father ! woe is me unhappy 
for thee ! What shall I do ? What counsel shall I take ? 
Woe is me ! 

Old Man. Peace, my son ; do not awaken the fell pangs 
of your maddened father ; [for though thus sunk down, he 
lives ;] but compress with your teeth your lips. 

Hyl. How say you, old man ?— does he live? 

O. M. Beware, my son, lest you awake him, now enthralled 
by sleep, and rouse him up, and again kindle the fury of his 
dire disease. 

Hyl. But my mind has become frenzied to a degree intol- 
erable to me, a wretched mortal. 

Hercules. Jove ! to what region have I come ? 
Amongst what mortals do I lie tortured by these never-ceasing 
pains ? Woe is me wretched ! The accursed pest again de- 
vours me ! Alas ! 

O. M. Do you not perceive how much better it would have 
been to bury your words in silence, and not dispel sleep from 
his temples and eyelids ? 

Hyl. But I am not able to be silent, beholding this 
calamity. 

Her. Censea, foundation of altars, what a return for 
what splendid sacrifices have ye made to wretched me ! 
O Jove, what a disgrace thou hast brought on me ! — a dis- 
grace such as I would that I, in my misery, had never beheld 
with my eyes, — this unappeasable fury of madness they must 

* 7rp6 dojxiov. This is evident nonsense. The editors oscillate between 
Trpbg dofiiuv, Trpbg dofiov, Trpbg dioixa. Wunder reads dojxovSe. B. 



1001—1050. TRACHINI^. 231 

look on' ! What charmer is there, or what practioner of the 
healing art, who, without the aid of Jove, shall lull to peace 
this pest'^? Oh that, though far off I might behold this miracle I 
Alas ! alas ! suffer me, suffer me miserable to sleep, suffer me 
to sleep my last sleep. Where do you touch me ? Where do 
you lay me ? You will kill me I you will kill me ! You have 
awakened the pangs that slumbered. It has touched me : it 
again comes on. Where are ye, oh ye most unjust men of 
all the Greeks ! for whom I oft, destroying monsters in the 
sea and in all the forests, exposed my life ? — and now against 
me, is this malady, no one will turn either fire or a friendly 
sword ! alas ! alas ! nor hastening, is willing to cut off my 
head from wretched life' ! alas ! alas ! 

O. M. O son of the hero ! this task has become too great 
for my strength ; but do you assist, for you have a clearer eye 
than me to discern what will aid him*. 

Hyl. I indeed lend my hand ; but it is impossible for me, 
either from my own or from foreign resources, to allay the 
tortures of this life. Jove alone possesses the remedy. 

Hpzh. O my son ! where ever art thou ? Here, here, taking 
hold of me, raise me up. Alas ! alas ! oh my sad fortune ! It 
bursts on me again, it bursts on me, the wretched ruin of my 
life, the immedicable fell disease. O Pallas, again it tortures 
me. Take compassion, O my son, on your father, and, draw- 
ing an innocent sword, strike me beneath the throat. O heal 
the agonies with which your impious mother has maddened 
me : whom may I behold perishing thus, even thus as she has 
destroyed me. O brother of Jove, dear Pluto, lull me, O lull 
me to sleep, ending, by a speedy fate, my wretched existence. 

Ch. I have shuddered, my friends, hearing by what suffer- 
ings our king, mighty as he is, is persecuted. 

Hek. Oh, I that have toiled with my hands and w^ith my 
shoulders in many a daring and unutterable deed; and never 
yet has the spouse of Jove presented to me such an evil, nor 
Eurystheus, my hated enemy, as this net, woven by the furies, 
by which I die, which the treacherous daughter of CEneus has 

^ Wunder has entirely omitted vs. 998 — 1000, a comfortable way of 
getting rid of the difficulty. Perhaps we should read tcaTahjxOtlvai. B. 
^ Wunder again gets rid of xwp/t; Zi]v6g. B. 
^ This seeems corrupt. B. 
* This is bad enough, but Wunder's emendation is worse still. B. 



232 TRACIIINIiE. 1051—1102. 

affixed to my shoulders. For, glued to my sides, it has 
gnawed away my outward flesh, and clinging within it drains 
the aiteries of my lungs : and it has already drunk up my 
vigorous blood, and I am consumed througli my whole frame, 
bound in these inexplicable fetters. This neither the martial 
array on the plains, nor the earthbom host of the giants, nor 
the might of monsters, nor Greek, nor barbarian, nor all the 
countries which, clearing from their pests, I penetrated, ever 
effected : but a woman, being a feminine, not a masculine 
nature, by herself, and without the aid of the sword, has de- 
stoyed me. O my son, prove that you have been bom my 
genuine son, and do not pay too much reverence to the name 
of a mother : taking your mother by force from the house, 
give her into my hands, that I may clearly know Avhether you 
will more pity her fate than mine, when you see her mangled 
body punished with justice. Come, my son, dare this deed, 
and pity me, the object of pity to many, who, like a girl, have 
howled and wept : and this no mortal can say that he ever 
saw me do before ; but without a groan I met my misfortunes. 
Now, in place of such a stern character, I am found to be a 
weak woman. Approaching now, stand near your father, and 
see by M'hat a calamity I endure these sufferings ; for I will 
show them uncovered. Lo ! here behold ye all this wretched 
body ; look on me, ill-fated wretch, in what a pitiable condi- 
tion I am ! Ah ! ah ! woe is me ! alas i alas ! The convul- 
sion of my agony is again burning ; again it thrills through 
my sides, nor do the gnawdngs of the wretched disease appear 
likely to leave me at rest. O king Pluto, receive me ! O 
lightning of Jove, strike me ! Brandish, O monarch of the 
sky ; hurl, father, the bolt of thy thunder ! For it revels 
on me again ; it has burst out, it has rushed forth upon me. 
O shoulders and breast ! O my dear arms ! are ye the same 
that once slew by your might the lion that dwelt in Nemea, 
scourge of the shepherds, an unapproachable and terrific 
monster ; and the Lernaean Hydra ; and the unconquerable 
host of Centaurs, of twin nature, insolent, lawless, and sur- 
passing in might ; and the Erjonanthian boar ; and below the 
earth, the triple-headed dog of Orcus, a monster unvanquished 
in fight, offspring of the horrid Echidna : and the dragon that 
guarded the golden apples in the world's remotest regions ? 
And a thousand other toils I essayed, and no one ever erected 



1103—1131. TRACHINI.E. 233 

a trophy in triumph over my night. But now, thus disjointed 
and torn to pieces, I, wretched, am the prey of this blind 
pestilence ; I, who was said to have sprung from a mother 
the noblest of all ; I, who was pronounced the son of Jove who 
dwells amidst the stars. But be well assured of this at least, 
that even though I am nothing, and vmable to move, I shall 
even from such feeble strength punish her who did this deed. 
Would that she might only come, that by what she expe- 
rienced, she might be able to announce to all, that both in my 
life and death, I took vengeance on the wicked'. 

Ch. O wretched Greece ! what a sorrow I foresee will be 
yours, if at least you be deprived of this hero. 

Hyl. Since, father, you give me leave to reply to you, 
although in pain, listen to me in silence ; for I shall ask of 
you what is right to obtain. Give yourself up to me, but not 
with feelings smarting under the vehemence of anger ; for you 
cannot thus be able to perceive how in some things you vainly 
desire to feel pleasure, and how in others you are as vainly 
pained. 

Hek. Speak what you wish, and have done; since I, in my 
malady, understand none of those things which you already 
have been refining on. 

Hyl. I come to tell of my mother, in what circumstances 
she now is placed, and in what she sinned against her will. 

Her. O basest wretch ! have you made mention of the 
mother that slew your father, in the expectation that I should 
listen ? 

Hi'L. For the case is such that it is not proper for me to 
be silent. 

Her. No, in truth, not that the guilt was first committed 
by her. 

Hyl. But you will not say so of the things she has this 
day done. 

'Her. Speak : but beware, lest you appear to have been 
born of a base spirit. 

Hyl. I speak : she has just died by recent slaughter. 

Her. By whose hand ? thou hast announced an evil 
portent. 

^ With this sublime speech compare Cicero's translation, Tusn. Quaest. 
II. 8, and to compare a very different treatment of the same subject, see 
a blustering scene in the fourth act of Seneca's Hercules' (Etoeus. B. 



234 TRAcniNi^. 1132—1167. 

Hyl. By her own, no stranger's hand.' 

Her. Alas! before, as was fitting, she perished by my 
hand. 

Hyl. Even your wrath would be turned away if you knew 
the whole. 

Her. You have begun a dreadful tale; but declare why 
you thus think. 

Hyl. She erred in the whole business, desiring what is 
good. 

Her. Did she do what is good, O wretch, in murdering 
your father } 

Hyl. For, thinking to apply a love charm to you, when she 
saw the new marriage within, she failed in her purpose. 

Her. Who, of the Trachinians, is so skilled in charms ? 

Hyl. Nessus, the Centaur of old, persuaded her to inflame 
your desire by this ])hiltre. 

Her. Woe, woe is me unhappy ! I, wretched, am gone. 
I am destroyed, I am destroyed : there exists no longer to me 
the light of day. Woe is me ! I perceive to what point of 
calamity I am reduced. Go, my son ; for to you there is no 
longer a father ; summon to me all the offspring of your bro- 
thers, and summon the wretched Alcmena, in vain the spouse 
of Jove, that ye may hear, from my lips, the final prediction 
of oracles, as far as I know. 

Hyl. But your mother is not here : for she is gone to 
Tiryns, by the sea-shore, to fix her dwelling there ; and of 
your children, taking some with her, she herself rears them, 
and others of them, you are to be informed, are dwelling in 
the city of Thebe. But we, O father, as many as are present, 
if it be necessary to do anything, when we hear it, will render 
he service. 

Her. Do you then hear what is to be done ; and you have 
arrived at that point where you shall show, being what sort of 
man, you are called my son. For it was predicted to me of 
old, by my father, that I should not die by any living enemy, 
but by one who, departed from life, should be a dweller in 
Hades This savage Centaur, therefore, according to the 
divine annunciation, though in death, destroys my life. And 
I will show you new oracles, harmonising with those of ancient 
date, and having a corresponding issue ; which, entering the 
grove of the Selli, whose home is the mountain, and whose 



1168—1197. TRACHINIiE. 235 

couch the ground, I wrote down as they were delivered from 
the vocal oak, inspired by my father. Its voice announced to 
me, that at this time now actually present, there should be 
consummated to me a release from the toils imposed on me ; 
and I deemed that I should live in prosperity : but this sig- 
nified nothing else but that I should die. For to the dead no 
toil arises. Since then, my son, the issue of these prophecies 
is clear ; it behoves you again to prove an ally to me, and not 
to wait for my mouth to urge you, but yielding, of your own 
accord, to assist me, having discovered the best of laws, obedi- 
ence to a father. 

Hyl. I am alarmed, O my father, at hearing an address of 
such a nature ; but I will obey you in what seems good to 
you. 

Her. First give me your right hand. 

Hyl. For what pledge do you make this eager request? 

Her. Will you not quickly extend your hand, and not 
prove disobedient to me ? 

Hyl. Lo, I extend it, and no objection shall be made by me. 

Her. Swear now by the head of Jove, my father. 

Hyl. That I will do what ? — and this oath shall be pro- 
nounced. 

Her. That you will perform the deed enjoined by me. 

Hyl. I swear ; calling Jove to witness. 

Her. If you transgress your oath, pray that you may 
receive pimishment. 

Hyl. I shall not receive it ; for I will do what you com- 
mand ; yet still I imprecate the curse. 

Her. Knowest thou, then, the highest cliff of CEta, sacred 
to Jove ? 

Hyl. I know it, having often, as a sacrificer, at least, stood 
on its summit. 

Her. Thither it is now fitting that you bear my body, with 
your owTi hands, and with the aid of such friends as you 
choose ; and having cut down many a bough of the deep- 
rooted oak, and many a trunk of the male* wild olive, cast my 

^ ** Oleastri mares, non feminee intelliguntur, defendandumque potius 
est Ovidii ure mares oleas, Fast. iv. 741, quam probandum quod ab 
emeiidatoribus profectum codices multi habent, mm^s rorem." Herm, 
Wunder has bracketed vss. 1195 — 8, which is his usual method with what- 
ever he cannot understand. B. 



236 TRAcniNi^. 1198—1231. 

body on the pile : and having taken the blazing pitchy torch, 
set it on fire^ But let neither groan nor tear have vent ; but 
without lamentation or weeping, if you are the son of this 
man, fulfil your task, But if you do not I await you, and 
even though I be below the earth, you shall ever be loaded 
with my curses. 

Hyl. Oh me ! my father, what words hast thou uttered ? 
to what deeds dost thou compel me ? 

Hek. What must be done : if not, be the son of some 
other, nor be called my son any longer. 

Woe is me ! still more again. To what a deed, oh father, 
do you excite me, to become your murderer and executioner ! 

Hek. No, in truth, I do not; but to be the healer, and only 
physician, of the evils I suffer. 

Hyl. But how shall I heal your body by consuming it in 
the flames ? 

Her. If you shrink from this, perform at least the rest. 

Hyl. There shall be no unwillingness at least to bear you. 

Her. Will there also be a sufficient heaping-up of the pyre 
I have described ? 

Hyl. In so far at least as I am able, so that I do not touch 
[the fire] with my own hands. But I will do the other things, 
and my part shall not be behind. 

Her. Well, this will do. But, in addition to these great 
requests, grant me a small favour. 

Hyl. Even though it be very great, it shall be rendered. 

Her. Knowest thou, in sooth, the daughter of Emytus ? 

Hyl. You mean lole, if I conjecture aright. 

Her. You are right. This charge, my son, I lay on you : 
if you wish, in remembrance of the oaths pledged to your fa- 
ther, to act the part of a pious son after my 'death, take lole 
to your wife, nor be disobedient to my commands. Let no 
other man but you obtain possession of her M^ho once lay by my 
side : but do you yourself, my son, make the alliance of these 
nuptials. Obey me ; for having been obedient to me in great 
matters, to disobey me in small does away with the former 
favour. 

Hyl. Ah me ! it is wrong to give way to anger against one 
in this distress ; but yet who could endure to see him have 
sentiments like these ? 

^ " Nemo me lacrymis decoret, aut funera faxit Flendo." Ennius. B. 



1232—1261. TRAC^I^'I7E. 237 

Her. Do you murmur, as about to refuse to do any of the 
things I request ? 

Hyl. But who would ever, since she alone was the cause 
of my mother's death, and to you also of the state to which 
you are reduced ; who, I say, that is not persecuted to madness 
by the furies, would choose her for a wife ? It is better for 
me, oh father, to die than to dwell with those who are most 
hateful to my soul. 

Her. It seems that this man is not going to pay duty to 
me in death ; but the curses of heaven await you, if you 
prove disobedient to my commands. 

Hyl. Alas ! you will soon, methinks, perceive how you are 
affected by disease. 

Her. For you again rouse me from the evils which slum- 
bered. 

Hyl. Wretched man that I am ! how I am, in many points, 
at a loss ! 

Her. For you disdain to obey a father. 

Hyl. But shaU I teach myself, O father, to act an impious 
part? 

Her. There is no impiety, if you give pleasure to my 
heart. 

Hyl. Do you command me then justly to perform these 
things ? 

Her. I do : I call the gods to witness. 

Hyl. I will therefore obey, and no longer refuse, having 
made it manifest to the gods that this is your deed. For I 
shall never appear base, O father, acting at least in obedience 
to your commands. 

Her. You conclude well ; and, in addition to this, make, 
my son, your favour speedy, so that, before any torture or 
pang assail me, you may place me on the pyre. Come, exert 
yourselves, raise me up : my respite from evils is the final 
close of my life. 

Hyl. But there is no obstacle for these things to be ac- 
complished for you, since, father, you command and compel me. 

Her. Come now, my stem spirit, before this disease be 
awakened, shewing a stone set bit of steeP, and restrain la- 

^ See Hermann's ncte in his last ed. and Liddell's Lex. s. v. \l9o- 
KoW. B. 



238 TRAcniNiiE. 1262—1278. 

mentation, as accomplishing^ this deed, though involuntary ; 
as a deed of joy. 

Hyl. E-aise him up, ye attendants, greatly forgiving me 
for these deeds, and being sensible of the great injustice of 
the gods, who, though they gave him being, and are called 
his fathers, can endure to look on these sufferings. The 
future, indeed, no one foresees ; but the events now present are 
lamentable to us, and disgraceful to them, and most bitter to 
him, of all men, who endures this visitation. Nor do thou, 
O damsel, remain at home, having seen these recent deaths 
of the mighty, and these many sufferings of unwonted af- 
fliction ; and nought is there of these which the hand of Jove 
hath not wrought. 

^ See Hermann. B. 



1—8. 



AJAX. 



Ajax, having been deprived of the arms of Achilles, which were awarded 
to Ulysses by the Grecian Assembly, in a fit of madness slaughtered 
the herds of the Greeks, mistaking them for the persons of the Atridae. 
On discovering his mistake, he in despair determines to slay himself, 
and the play concludes with his burial, which Ulysses advocates, con- 
trary to the wish of Agamemnon. B. 



DRAMATIS PERSON^E. 



Minerva. 

Ulysses. 

Ajax. 

Chorus of Salaminians. 

Tecmessa. 



Messenger. 
Teucer. 

Menelaus. 
Agamemnon. 



Minerva. Ever, son of Laertes, have I observed thee 
liiinting after some attempt on thy foes to snatch at it\ and 
now I see thee at the marine pavilion of Ajax, where he 
holds his post the last'^, long since tracking him as thy prey, 
and measuring his freshly graven foot- prints, that thou 
mayest discover whether he be within, or not within. Well 
does thy track, of scent sagacious as the Spartan brach's', lead 

- 'ApTrdcrat. This expression is considered byMusgrave as synonymous 
with the V(pap7rd(rai and ^vvapTrdcrai of Aristophanes, Nub. V. v. 490, 
773. Lobeck, however, quotes Plutarch in support of his opinion, that 
it bears here the sanie meaning with the *' am-as captare " of the Latins. 

2 E'en Ajax and Achilles heard the sound, 

Whose ships, remote, the guarded navy bound. 

Pope's Iliad, B. XI. v. 11. 
See also Eurip. Iph. Aul. 292. The lonely situation of Ajax on the beach, 
chosen by him when he was rjvopajj iriavvoQ kuI KcipTti x^ipuiv, is beauti- 
fully alluded to here, where it forms so appropriate a stage for the exhi- 
bition of his unfriended solitude and desolation of heart. 

^ The dogs of Sparta are noticed by Viigil for their swiftness, G. iii. 
405 ; which quality Shakspeare has remarked in his Midsummer Night's 
Dream, and elsewhere speaks of them m a passage perhaps yet more 
applicable to Ulysses : — 



240 AJAX. 9—39. 

thee forth, for the man chances just now to be within, his 
head and murderous hands dripping with sweat. And there 
is no need for thee any longer to peer within this his gate, but 
to declare for what cause thou hast bestowed this anxious 
toil, that thou mayest learn of me that know^. 

Ulysses. O voice of Minerva, my best-beloved of deities, 
how well known do I hear, and grasp with my mind, even 
though thou be unseen, thy voice, like that of the brazen- 
throated Tuscan trump^ ! And now thou art rightly advised, 
that I walk about, looking after mine enemy, Ajax the shield- 
bearer, for him, and none other, I all this while am tracking. 
For on this very night hath he worked us a wrong unlooked 
for^, if indeed 'tis he hath done this* : for we know nothing 
certain, but are at fault : and I have yoked me voluntarily to 
this trouble. We found but now our captive herds all de- 
stroyed, and butchered out of hand, they, and the guardians 
of the flocks themselves : so each one lays the charge at Ajax' 
door. And to me a watchman, that espied him bounding 
over the plains alone, with freshly-reeking sword, tells it, 
and hath made it known ; so forthwith I hurry close on his 
steps, and of part I have proof, but in part I am thrown out, 
and cannot learn whose they are^. But in season art thou 
come ; for in all things, both past (thou knowest) and to come, 
am I piloted by thy hand. 

MiN. I know it, Ulysses ; and long since came I foilh 
upon thy path, a zealous guardian to thee in thy hunt. 

Ui,. And do I, dear mistress, toil to purpose ? 

MiN". Yes, since these deeds are his, be sure. 

O Spartan dog. 

More fell than hunger, anguish, or the sea! 
Look on the tragic loading of this bed : 
This is thy work. Othello, act 5, scene the last. 

^ This may be rendered, ' ' that what I know, and thou woiddst learn, 
thou mayest." 

2 Kwdojv, strictly speaking, is the bell or broad part of the trumpet. 
That called the Tuscan, (by Athenseus, KeK\aafj.evov,) from its many 
windings, produced a louder tone. 

2 As in the monstrous grasp of their conception 

Defy all codes to image or to name them. Doge of Venice. 
^ Elpyaarat, in Sophocles, is always used actively. CEd. Tyr. 279 
Ant. 747. 

5 "Orov, £1(71 subaud. See Antigone, v. 318. Ajax, 103. 



40—69. A J AX. 241 

Ul. And to what inconceivable purpose hath he thus in 
fury set his hand^? 

MiN. Overcharged with indignation about Achilles' arms. 

Uii. Why then hurries he this inroad on the flocks ? 

Must. Fancying that in you he stains his hand with mirrder. 

Ul. What! was this plot of his devised as against the 
Argives ? 

MiN. Ay, and he had accomplished it, had I been careless. 

Ul. With Avhat such bold attempts, and rashness of soul ? 

MiN. At night; alone, he traitorously sallies forth against 
you. 

Ul. How ? was he close upon us, and reached he the goal? 

MiN. Yes, he was even at the gates of the two generals. 

Ul. And how checked he his hand, ravenous of murder ? 

MiN. I bar him of his cureless joy, having cast before his 
eyes intolerable fancies^, and turn him aside on the flocks, 
and mingled multitude of prey, the herdsmen's yet unparted 
care. There, falling on, he mowed down many a horned 
slaughter, hewing down all around him, and deemed at one 
time he held and slew with his own hand the two Atridaj, 
and then, one here, another there, of the chieftains, assaulting 
them : while I was urging on, and entrammeling in e\dl 
snares, the man, frenzied with mad distemperature. And 
afterwards again, when he rested from this butchery', ha^s^ng 
bound together with chains those of the oxen that survived, 
and all the flocks he conveys them to his dwelling, as having 
men and not a horned spoil, and is now scom\ging them fet- 
tered at home. Nay, I wiU also show thee this his sickness 
most manifest, that having witnessed thou mayest noise it 
abroad to all the Greeks. But tarry with firmness, nor look 
for harm from the man*; for I will obstruct the averted 

^ This use of the verb aiffaoj is objected to by Ruhnken, who has 
altered it in two places of Euripides, where it occurs in an active sense. 
Lobeck, however, defends it by a similar idiom in the words TrdWeiv, 
dLvtiv, Ooa^eiv, etc. 

2 Tvujfiai sunt hoc loco ludibria oculorum, specie terribilia, ad deflec- 
tendum ab proposito itinere Ajacem. Lobeck. Who also, on the autho- 
rity of Suidas, objects to Musgrave's proposed reading, yXtjuag. 

^ Lobeck reads irovov, and observes that the expression, as it stands in 
Brunck, is never used but as applied to those " qui a csede et certamine 
diuturno quietem habent." 

* Literally, "nor receive the man as a calamity." Hermann very 
positively asserts that {lifivt cannot be taken with tov dvdpa. 



242 AJAX. 70—90. 

glances of his eyes from looking on thy presence*. Ho ! 
thou. Thee, that art fitting in chastisement thy captives' 
hands with bonds, I bid come to me. Ajax, I say, come out 
before thine abode. 

TI I,. What didst thou, Minerva ? by no means call him out. 
MiN. Wilt thou not keep silence, nor cherish cowardice ? 
Ul. Nay, by heaven, content thee that he stay within. 
MiN. Lest what should happen? Was he not a man 
formerly* ? 

Ui-. Mine enemy, I grant, and even now. 
MiN. And is not that the most grateful laugh which we 
indulge on our foes .^ 

Ul. For my part, I am satisfied that he stay within 
doors. 

MiN. Dreadest thou to look on a man most evidently 
frantic^? 

Ul. I ne'er had avoided him, through dread, while in his 
senses*. 

MiN. Nor fear that he shall now behold thee, though close 
by him. 

Ul. How not, if, at least, he looks with the same eyes ? 
MiN. I will darken his eyes, although they see. 
Ul. Anything may be, when a god is the framer. 
MiN. Stand now, in silence, and continue as thou art. 
Ul. I will continue, but I had rather have been elsewhere. 
MiN. Ho ! ho ! Ajax ! A second time I call thee to me. 
Why hast thou so little respect for thine ally ? 

1 This is supposed by Lobeck to have been all copied by Sophocles 
from the Iliad of Lesches, a Lesbian poet, whose work is mentioned by 
Pausanias. 

2 Musgrave considers avtjp, as used in this passage, /car* i^oxr]v. Lo- 
beck, with more reason, understands it, ** Was he more than man before 
now.'" 

•* Ulysses is here somewhat lowered in the eyes of the audience; but 
this is in accordance with the spirit which made the sons in the group of 
Laocoon disproportionately small, to increase the effect of the principal 
figure. What are we to imagine that madness, whicli could render the 
assured protection of a mighty goddess insufficient to encourage a warrior 
to look on it? 

^ Ulysses speaks the sense of Aristotle here, who in his seventh book 
observes, that though a bad man be far worse than a wild beast, the latter 
i» more terrible, being irrational. 



91—115. AJAX. 243 

Ajax. Minerva, liall, O hail, thou child of Jove. How 
fortunate thy presence here ! I will crown thee^ too, with 
trophies all-golden, in requital of this my spoil. 

MiN. Well hast thou said; but tell me this, hast thou well 
bathed thy sw ord in the Argives' host ? 

A J. Tis mine to boast, and I will not deny [and say] I 
did not the deed^ 

MiiSr. And hast thou armed thine hand against the 
Atrida) ? 

Aj. Ay, so as that they shall never more dishonour Ajax. 

MiN. The men are dead, as I understand thy speech. 

Aj. Being dead, now let them rob me of my arms. 

MiN. Well, and what then of Laertes' son? How stands 
he to thee in fortune ? has he escaped thee ? 

Aj. Question you me of that rascal fox, v»'here he is'^ ? 

Miisr. I do : Ulysses, thy rival, I mean. 

Aj. O queen, he sits my most welcome prisoner within. 
For I would in no wise have him die yet. 

Mix. Ere thou shalt do what, or reap what further 
gain? 

Aj. Ere, bound to the column of my halFs dome', — 

MiK. What ill, I pray, wilt thou work the miserable 
man ? 

A J. His back first purpled with the scourge*, he shall 
die. 

MiN. Nay, do not thus, at least, torture the wretch. 

Aj. Minerva, in the rest I concede that thou be pleased, 
but he shall pay this my penalty and no other. 

MiN. Do thou then, since this it is thy pleasure to do, use 
thine hand, spare to do nought of that thou purposest. 

^ This form is constantly used by Thucydides : see L. I. c. 73. 

2 Although Minerva was hostile to Ajax, yet to have revenged herself 
by these means would have been undignified, she therefore tells us that it 
was to save the Greek army she deluded his eyes with these phantoms. 
Thus, by her natural interference, the two great enemies are brought on 
the stage together, Ajax not recognising his foe, and our pity for Ajax 
raised to its highest by the contrast. Hermann. 

^ This was a common custom; and is described by Homer in the 
Odyssey, B. 22, as the punishment of Melanthius, who fares much the 
same with Sir Topaz, in Parnell's Fairy Tale. 

For a description of the chieftains' tents at Troy, see the last book of 
the Iliad. 

* Hence the title of this tragedy. 

K 2 



244 AJAX. 116—155. 

A J. I go to my work ; but this I charge thee with, that 
thou be ever on my side an assistant such as now. 

MiN. Thou seest Ulysses, the might of gods, how great 
it is. Whom found you ever, either more provident to counsel, 
or more brave to act in time of need than this man ? 

Ul. I know of none ; and though he be mine enemy, I 
yet compassionate him, thus wretchc^d, for that he hath been 
yoked to grapple with a dreadful calamity^, considering no 
more his fortune than mine own ; for I see that all we who 
are alive, are nothing else but phantoms or unreal shadows. 

MiN. Since then thou seest it is so, look that thyself 
never utter a prideful word against the gods, nor assume 
aught of vanity, if thou outweighest any one, either in valour 
or depth of plenteous wealth ; since a day sinks and restores 
again [to light] all human things. But the modest the gods 
love, and abhor the wicked*. 

Chorus. Son of Telamon, that swayest the eminence of 
sea-girt Salamis, that neighbours the mainland, over thee 
when faring weU I joy ; but when a stroke from Jupiter, or 
malignant evil rumour from the Greeks assails thee, I have 
great alarm, and shudder, like the glance of a fluttering dove. 
Even as on the night that now hath waned, great clamoiu-s, 
tending to infamy, beset us ; that thou, having rushed forth 
to the meadow, the courser's joy^, hast destroyed the herds 
and booty of the Greeks, all that yet was left their lances' 
prize, slaughtering them with flashing steel. Such whispered 
words as these Ulysses forging* carries to the ear of all, and 
firmly convinces them ; since now he tells a tale of thee, most 
plausible, and every one that hears is yet more delighted than 
the teller, at insolently triumphing in thy soitows. For 
whoso launches his bolt at noble persons^, could not miss : 

1 This is precisely Aristotle's idea: " For it evidently is necessary that 
a person likely to feel pity should be actually such as to deem that either 
ill his own person, or of some one connected with him, he may suffer 
some evil." Rhet. B. II. c. 8. 

2 For similar sentiments compare the second strophe of the fourth 
Chorus in CEdipus Tyrannus. 

3 Hermann translates tTTTro/xai^/}, equis luxurians, i. e. abundans. 

^ Vira^il has not forgotten this characteristic of Ulysses. See the 
iEneid, B. II. v. 97, 164. 

° Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se 

Crimen habet, quanto major, qui peecat, kabetur. 



156—190. AJAX. 245 

but were any one to bring this charge against me, he would 
not be believed ; since envy crawls on towards the master. 
And yet the mean, without the great, are but a slippery de- 
fence to a tower ; for the low united to the great, and the 
great by means of his inferiors, might best be supported. 
But 'tis impossible to foreteach the senseless opinions on this. 
By such men art thou clamoured against, and M^e have not 
strength to make head against all this, prince, without thy 
aid. No, for when now they have escaped thine eye, they 
clatter like flocks of birds ; but shrinking in terror from the 
mighty vulture, voiceless, perhaps they M^ould all on a sudden 
cower in silence, wert thou to appear. Full surely did the 
bull-hunting Diana^, daughter of Jove, [oh wide report ! oh 
mother of my shame !] incite thee against the public droves 
of oxen ; either haply as a requital of some victory to her 
fiuitless, or cheated of her present of illustrious spoils, for 
some stricken deer for which she received no gift. Or it 
might be the brazen breast-plated Enyalius, having some 
complaint in behalf of his aiding sjDear'*, that by nightly de- 
vices avenged for himself the wrong. For, surely, thou 
couldst never, son of Telamon, intentionally have assayed 
a purpose so sinister, assaulting the flocks ; yet a disease from 
heaven might visit thee : but may Jove and Apollo avert the 
evil slander of the Greeks. If, however, the mighty princes are 
by stealth suborning these fables^ or any of Sisyphus' aban- 

See also Aristotle's Rhet. B. II. c. 10. 

If I am traduced by tongues, wbich neither know 

My faculties nor person, yet will be 

The chronicles of my doing, — let me say, 

'Tis but the fate of place. Henry VIII. act i. sc. 2. 

^ Thus Lobeck gives it. Brunck translates it, ^' tauris vecta." ' Mus- 
grave's idea would make Sophocles guilty of an anachronism. " Concur- 
susque matronarum in templum Dianse, quam Tauropolon vocant, ad 
spem exposcendum fieret." Liv. xliv. c. 44. 

2 Musgrave translates this, ultus est contumeliam hast<s anxiliatrici 
sitcB illatam." Hermann, reading ft riv' observes, that as ]Mars was a 
friend to the opposite party, this expression is well adapted to a person 
very much in doubt if the spear of Mars could ever have consorted with 
that of AJHX. 

•' The Scholia mention that Antirlea, mother of Ulysses, was violated 
by Sisyphus, on her way to her betrothed husband Laertes; and add, 
that it was with the connivance of her father Autolycus, who had beea 
detected in stealing some property from Sisyphus. 



246 AJAX. 191—224. 

doned^ race, do not. do not my king, any longer thus, keeping 
thine eye fixed within thy tent on the shore, receive the ill 
report. But rise from the seat, where long since thou art 
rooted in long rest from warlike action, inflaming thine hea- 
ven-sent plague : while the insolence of thine enemies thus 
fearless in speeding amid the breezy glens ; and all are griev- 
ously scoffing with their tongues, but on me sorrow hath 
settled. 

Tecmessa. Defenders of the ship of Ajax, of lineage from 
the earth-born Erectheidae^, we have cause to mourn with 
groans, who from afar are well-wishers to the house of Tela- 
mon. For now the terrible, the mighty, stout-shouldered 
Ajax, is lying diseased with tempestuous fury. 

Ch. How has this night changed the burden of the day- 
time ? Child of Teleutas the Phrygian, speak, since the ar- 
dent A.jax, dearly loving thee, honours thy captive bed^, and 
thus thou wouldst not ignorantly hint at aught. 

Tec. How, then, shall I speak a tale unspeakable ? for 
thou wilt hear a calamity terrible as death, since our illus- 
trious Ajax, seized with frenzy, hath this night been degraded. 
Such butchery, M'eltering in gore, the slaughter of his hand, 
mayest thou see within, the victims* of that man. 

Ch. What tidings hast thou disclosed, insupportable, yet 
unavoidable, of the fiery warrior; — tidings spread abroad 

' For the use and abuse of the word acrajroc, see Aristotle's Eth. B. 4. 
2 A political stroke to please the Athenians, derived probably from the 
tradition of the JEacidse passing over to Salamis from ^gina, which be- 
longed to Attica. Aristotle, Rhet. I, 15, alludes to a dispute between 
Athens and Megara respecting their title to Salamis, which the Athenians 
proved by citing these verses from Homer's Catalogue: 

Ai'ofc ^' ii*^ ^aXafuvog dyev SvoKaid^Ka vriag, 
"ZrfjcTS S' ciyojv, 'iv 'AQrjvaiojv ^icrrai'TO (paXayytq. 
Which second line Quintilian asserts not to have been found in every 
edition, and Laertius (in Solone) mentions a report of Solon's having 
interpolated Homer in this place. It is certain, however, that when Clis- 
thenes the Alcmseonid changed the names of the Athenian tribes into 
appellations derived from mdigenous heroes, Ajax alone of foreign ex- 
traction was admitted to this honour, and the tribe Aiantis was called 
after him. Herod. 5, 67. 

2 Movit Ajacem Telamone natum 

Forma captivae dorainum Tecmessse. Hor. Lib. TI. Od. iv. 1. 5. 
"* xprjcrrrioia, to. die(p9a^)p.5va TToifivia' irapd to CiaxprjaaaQai avrd. 
Schol. B. ' 



225—258. AJAX. 247 

among the Greek chieftains akeady, which ^\ade report ex- 
aggerates ! Ah me, I fear the approaching ilP. Too plainly 
will the hero fall by his frenzy- stricken hand, having slaugh- 
tered with dark sword at once the cattle and the herds- 
men^. 

Tec. Ah me! 'twas thence, then, thence he came bringing 
us the fettered flock ; of which some he was butchering on 
the ground Avithin, and others he was rending asunder, 
hewing open their sides. But having chosen out two white- 
footed rams, he lops off and thi'ows away the head and tip of 
the tongue of one^, and having tied the other upright to a pillar, 
and taken a large horse-binding halter, he lashes it with a 
M'histling double scourge, reviling it in shameful terms, 
which some god*, and none of men, had taught him . 

Ch. Time is it now for one, having shrouded one's head 
in a veil, to adopt a stealthy flight on foot, or seating him on 
the speeding bench of rowing to commit himself to the ocean- 
bounding bark*. Such threats do the Atridae of twin sway 
in concert ply against us. I fear lest, stricken, I share the 
pain of a violent death by stoning with Ajax^, whom an un- 
approachable calamity possesses. 

Tec. No longer. For as without the blazing lightning 
the impetuous south wind rushes forth, he is calm". And 

^ " Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. !Musgrave thinks the 
word TTtpipai'Tog should be translated, " undecunque mani/estus, multis 
i?idiciis convichts.'* 

- According to Musgrave, the Greek here alludes to some spot in the 
plain of Troy called Hippus. Hercuann reads 'nnroviofxovg. 

3 The conduct of Fulvia, wife of Antony, exhibits a similar instance 
of revenge, when with a bodkin she pierced the tongue of the murdered 
Cicero. 

* Lobeck rightly remarks that no guardian genius is meant, but some 
inimical deity. The latest translator, Mr. G. Burges, well renders: 
*' spoke bitter words and abusive. That a fury, not mortal had taught 
him." B. 

^ " Dicere volebat tlptaiav vat fisOtlvai, solvere, i. e. libenim facere 
remorum nsum. Sed quoniam addere volebat tZ,6i.uvov, conjunxit hsec 
ita, ut diceret Boov tipeaiag ^vyov l^onevov. Tantumdem est ergo, ac si 
dixisset iv rip 0o(p ^fyf,J eZo/xtvov, dptaiav fitOdvai ry vi]t. Herm. 

^ The Greek has \iQ6\ivaTov apt]. Probably death in war, being the 
most noble. (Ar. Eth. 3,) is put for its whole class, just as the Hopliies 
of a Greek army stood for the whole infantry. 

'' " In summer, when there are thunders and lightnings, thenceforth 



248 AJAX. 259—287. 

now, being sensible, he feels a fresh sorrow. For to look on 
sufferings all one's o\N'n, none other faring alike, suggests 
deep pangs. 

Ch. Yet if he be at rest, I deem myself most fortunate, 
for of the evil now vanished there is less thought. 

Tec. Whether now, did any one assign you the choice, 
would you choose, afflicting your friends, yourself to be 
possessed of pleasures, or a sharer amid sharers, to sympathise 
in pain ? 

Ch. The misery doubled, believe me, lady, is the greater. 

Tec. Thus we, though not diseased, are now afflicted. 

Ch. How hast thou said this ? I know not how thou 
meanest. 

Tec. That man, while he M^as diseased, was himself de- 
lighted with the woes in which he was involved, but by his 
presence tortured us who were in our senses. But now that 
he has ceased, and respired from his malady, both he is all 
racked with dreadful anguish, and we similarly no less then 
before. And are not these, then, double ills from sin- 
gle? 

Ch. T agree with you, and am in fear least some plague 
from heaven be upon him. How should it not. if when at 
rest he is not a whit more gladdened than when distem- 
pered ? 

Tec. It needs thou be assured that these things are 
thus. 

Ch. For what might be the beginning of this evil that 
flew upon him ? Disclose to us, who sympathise in his 
misfortunes. 

Tec. Thou shalt know the whole matter, as being a sharer 
in it. For he, in the dead of night, when the evening lamps 
were no longer burning^, having taken his two-edged sword, 
was eagerly seeking to prowl thi'ough the deserted passes. 

arise violent winds : and if the lightning be frequent and vivid, they blow 
with greater fury; but if it be slight and seldom, then they are gentler; 
the contrary of which is ths case in autumn and winter." Theophrast. 
de Sign. Vent. p. 421. The same fact is said to take place in the West 
Indies. 

1 This has by some been understood to mean the stars ; but from the 
common mode of designating the approach and close of the night by simi- 
lar expressions (TTtpj Xtix^^wv a0ae. Dionys. Hal. xi. ftlxP' ^^X*'*^^ "0<^^* 
Athen. xii. ^'adextremas lucemas." Propert. L. 3. El. 8.) the translation 



288—318 AJAX. 249 

Sol chide him, and say, "A\Tiat dost thou, Ajax? WTiy 
unbidden, nor summoned by messengers, hurriest thou to 
this attempt, — nor hearing any trumpet ? Now at least the 
whole army is asleep." He answered me with words brief, 
but of trite usage. " Woman, to women silence brings ho- 
nour^." And I, thus schooled, desisted, while he rushed forth 
alone. And of his sufferings without I cannot speak ; but 
he came in, bringing ^\ith him bulls tied together, herdsman's 
dogs, and noble horned booty. And of some he began to 
break the necks ; others, turning them on their backs, to 
stab and cut through their spine : while others, enchained, 
would he scourge, falling on the flocks as on men. But at 
last, bursting away through the doors, he began to rant 
out words to some shadow^, part against the Atridse, and part 
about Ulysses ; blending with them abimdance of laughter, 
with how much of insult he had avenged himself on them in 
this sally. And then, having hurried back to his abode 
again, hardly is he at length restored to his senses, I know 
not how. And when he looks throughout the house, full of 
destruction, he smote his head, and shrieked aloud ; and amid 
the wrecks of the carcasses of slaughtered sheep, he sat 
stretched on the ground, rending with clenched grasp of hand 
and nail his hair. This time had he sat the longest without 
speaking : then in dreadful terms he threatened me, unless 
I showed him the whole calamity that had befallen; and 
asked me in what case he could possibly be. So I, mv 
friends, being afraid, told him all that had been prepetrated, 
exactly as much as I knew. But he forthwith broke out 
into doleful shrieks, which never before had I heard from him ; 
as it stands appears most probable. It may be questioned, however, 
whether uKpag vvktoq means the dead of night, or its close. Pindar 
(Isthm. 4,) asserts that it was in the night that Ajax fell on his sword. 

^ "This is from Callistratus: 'As leaves are an ornament to trees, 
their fleeces to sheep, their manes to horses, the beard to men, so silence 
is an ornament to women.' " Potter (from the Scholia). A similar sen- 
timent is put into the mouth of Hector, 11. vi. 490. See also Euripides: 
TvvaiKi yap criyjy re Kai to awcppovelv 
KdWicFTOv. 

" Thus Aristophanes : 

7nvaKT]^6v aTrocnriov 
yrryeveX (pvarjuari. Ranae, v. 825. 

And Yirgll : 

— imoque trahens a pectore vocem. ^n. 1. v. 375 



250 AJAX. 319—355. 

for such laments he all along was wont to pronounce were 
suited to a man of cowardly and little-mmded spirit. But he, 
noiseless of shrill outcries, would groan inwardly, moaning 
as a bull. And now lying in such miserable plight, the man, 
without food or drink, has fallen, and sits quietly amid the 
cattle, victims of his steel : and he evidently is about to work 
some ill, such are, I know not how, his words and lamen- 
tations. But, oh my friends, for to this intent was I sent, 
come ye in, and aid him, if at all ye can. For such as he are 
vanquished by the advice of friends. 

Ch. Tecmessa, daughter of Teleutas, dire is thy tale to us, 
that the hero has by his woes been driven to utter madness^ 

Aj. Ah me, me! 

Tec. Soon, it seems, will he be more so. Hush! heard ye 
not, Ajax, what a cry this is that he utters aloud? 

Aj. Alas! alas! 

Ch. He is, it seems, either still distempered, or at present 
pained with the sickness that erst possessed him. 

A J. Oh son! son! 

Tec. Unhappy me! Eurysaces'^, for thee he clamours. 
\Miat can he be thus eager for ? Where art thou ? Woe is 
me! 

Aj. Teucer I call: where's Teucer? will he everlastingly 
be following the foray', while I am perishing? 

Ch. The man, it seems, is sensible: but open. Haply he 
may feel somewhat of respect at looking even on me. 

Tec. Behold, I open*; and thou mayest see his deeds, and 
how he himself is conditioned. 

Aj. O mariners beloved, my only friends, who only are 
abiding in upright faith, see what a tide from a bloody and 
tempestuous ocean, just now careering round, encircles me. 

Ch. Alas! how you seem to report but too truly! The 
deed declares how insane he is. 

^ A metaphor from the inspiration supposed to be derived from the sun. 

2 Eurysaces was son of Ajax by Tecmessa, so named from the cele- 
brated shield which in this play his sire bequeaths him. 

^ This confirms the remark of Thucydides respecting the nature of the 
Greek expedition against Troy, and the causes of its so long duration. 
Thuc. I. 

■* Here takes place the tKKVK\r]fia, as it was called in the Greek theatres; 
the centre of the scene opens, and discovers Ajax sitting among the 
slaughtered cattle. 



356—391. AJAX. 251 

Aj. O race, that helped me hi the seaman's art, thou that 
didst embark to ply the briny oar, — thee only, thee I say of 
all my guardians, have 1 seen bent to relieve me. No more; 
but do thou slay me. 

Ch. Speak words of good import: do not by ministering to 
ills a remedy as ill, augment the pain of thy calamity. 

Aj. Seest thoa me, the bold, the stout-hearted, the fear- 
less in conflict with the foe, — now terrible of might amid 
harmless brutes 1 Woe is me for the derision with which I 
have been insulted ! 

Tec. Do not, lord Ajax, I implore thee, speak thus. 

A J. Wilt thou not away? wilt not move hence thy foot in 
quick retire ? Alas ! alas ! 

Ch. Oh, by the gods I pray thee, yield, and be of thy 
right mind. 

Aj. O luckless M^etch, I that let slip from my hands the 
villains ; and falHng on beeves with cranlded horns, and on 
bleating^ flocks, shed their black blood ! 

Ch. "V\Tiy, in sooth, shouldst thou grieve over the past and 
done 1 for it is impossible that these things should not be so. 

Aj. O thou that pryest into everything^ ; — continually the 
tool of all mischief, — son of Laertes, — thou filthiest vagabond 
of our host, full surely thou exultest with many a laugh for 

joy- 

Ch. By God's will every one both laughs and mourns. 

Aj. Could I now but see him, though afflicted as I am ! 
Alas! alas! 

Ch. Speak nothing haughty : seest thou not in what misery 
thou art? 

Aj. Jove, sire of my forefathers, how might I, having 
destroyed that most crafty hated outcast, and the two sove- 
reign princes, at last myself too fall. 

1 kXvtoq seems applied to the sheep on account of the noise of their 
bleating, did rag ev avTolg Tapaxdg Kal (pojvdg, as the scholiast says. 
See Liddell. s. v. No. 2. B. 

2 The description of Ulysses here given much resembles Thersites* pic- 
ture of himself in Troilus and Cressida: " No, no, I am a rascal, a scurvy- 
railing knave, a veiy filthy rogue." And the mercy which he thereupon 
obtains from Hector, may well bear Philoett-tes out in his sentiments on 
the good and bad among mankind. See Phil. 446. Hermann, m oppo- 
sition to Musgrave, considers this a reproach levelled by Ajax at the dis- 
guise assumed by Uiysses to penetrate Troy: see Od. 4. 244. 



252 AJAX. 392—425. 

Tec. When such is thy prayer, at the same time beg death 
for me also ; since what need have I to live, when thou art 
no more ? 

Aj. O darkness, that art my light, O Erebus, to me most 
radiant, take me, oh take me, as your inmate, take me : for 
no longer am I worthy to look on the race of gods or mortals 
for any profit to mankind^. No, the warrior goddess, daughter 
of Jove, disgracefully persecutes me to destruction. Whither, 
then, can one fly? Whither shall I go, and there abide? 
since one part is gone'^, my friends, e'en with the work be- 
fore you ; and I have set myself upon a silly chace : but for 
the army — they all would slay me with hand doubly aiTaed^. 

Tec. Ah hapless me! that a man of worth should utter 
words like these, which he ne'er before could have had the 
heart [to speak!] 

Aj. O ! paths of dashing sea-surge, and caverns, that skirt 
the main, — and thou, cliff-crowning grove, much, much and 
long time have ye detained me around Troy; but no moJ"e, 
no more shall ye [keep] me drawing the breath of life ; know 
this, whoever is possessed of reason. Oh neighbouring 
streams of Scamander, kindly of spirit to the Greeks*, think 
not ye shall any longer look on me, a man (I will speak out 
the haughty boast) such as Troy hath not seen in all the host 

^ There's nothing in this world can make me joy: 

Life is as tedious as a twioe-told ta!e 

Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; 

And bitter shame hath spoil'd the world's sweet taste. 

That it yields nought but shame and bitterness. 

King John, act 3, so. 4. 
. 2 Perhaps meaning '* my hope of revenge is lost by the slaughter just 
committed." Wunder gives up the passage as hopeless. B. 

3 SiTraXTOQ here, as SopiTraXTOQ in the Agamemnon of JEschylus, is 
used transitively. Eustathins on this passage says the ttuXtov was a 
particular weapon. Tr. — Rather render '*tbe well-armed army would 
slay me." B. 

■^ Lobeck understands this passage as a mark of Ajax' deep resentment 
and passion, in thinking th--^ very streams of Troy had conspired against 
him with his present enemies, the Greeks. There does not, however, 
seem any reason why we should adopt this certainly far-fetched idea, 
unless it be the rise of the Scamander to overwhelm Achilles, as told in the 
Iliad. Musgrave, on this account, proposes to read Svcrppovsg. Hermann 
removes the comma after 'Apyeioig, and renders the passage " never again 
will ye in your favour to the Argive host look upon this man," vestro 
favore victorem» 



426—456. AJAX 253 

who came from the land of Greece. And now, thus disho- 
noured, am I lying prostrate. 

Ch. Believe me, I kno\y not how either to prevent thee or 
suffer thee to speak, all fallen as thou art into miseries such 
as these. 

Aj. Ah ! ah ! Who could have ever thought that my name*, 
thus accordant, would harmonize with my misfortunes ! For 
now twice, nay, thrice, have I cause to utter Ah! in such 
evils am I involved ; I, whose father from this land of Ida, 
having best deserved of all the army the choicest prize of 
honour, returned home possessed of all renown ; while I, his 
son, having come to this very realm of Troy, with not inferior 
might, nor having by my hand helped Avith deeds less glo- 
rious, perish thus unhonoiu-ed by the Greeks. And yet of 
thus much at least methinks I am assured, that were Achilles 
yet alive, purposing to award the prize of excellence to some 
one in the matter of his own arms, none else but I had 
grasped them. But now, on the contrary, the Atridse have 
worked his will for a crafty villain, having rejected the might 
of Ajax. And had not this mine eye and distorted mind 
wildly strayed from my piu'pose, never again should they by 
vote have given judgment against man^. But now the steni- 
eyed, dauntless goddess, daughter of Jove, baffled me, already 
putting forth my hand upon them, ha\ing cast on me a dis- 
tempered frenzy, that I stained my hands with blood on brutes 
like these, while they are deriding me, having escaped, not 
by my will indeed. But if a god foil him, even the coward 
may elude the braver man. And now what can I dol 1 

^ The ancients attributed much importance to the signification of names ; 
and their idea was probably founded on tradition, deiived from the patri- 
archal ages, as they also held the inspiration of a death-bed, taken from 
the same source. " God shall enlarge Japhet," and Japhet signifies 
enlargement. Abram and Sarai changed their names by divine command, 
for such as better suited the ancestors of nations and of the Prince of 
nations. Tkie Romans carried their superstition so far as to change the 
name of Epidamnus to Dyrrachium. In fact, of such serious consequence 
yreie nanics considered in Greece, that Aristotle in his Rhetoric classes 
them among his heads of argument. Tr. — " Ai ! Ai ! who would have 
thought my name of Aias would suit so well, as name-sake to my woes." 
Burges' Translation. B. 

* "Eustathius has noted the anachronism in the word typri^iffav in this 
passage." Herm. 



254 AJAX. 457—485. 

that am manifestly abhorred of gods, aud the Greek host 
detests me; while all Troy, and these her plains, are my 
foes ? Whether shall I, having abandoned our naval station, 
and the sons of Atreus, to themselves, cross the ^gean sea 
for home? And what face shall I show my father Telamon, 
appearing before him ? How will he ever bear to look on me 
forlorn before him. destitute of the meed of valourS whereof 
himself acquired the illustrious crown of glory? The deed is 
not to be borne, — ^but shall I then, advancing to the Trojan 
ramparts, alone with them alone engaging, and achieving 
some honourable deed, so fall at last ? Nay, thus I must at 
all events pleasure the Atridse'*. This may not be; some 
attempt must be sought of such a nature, as that by it I may 
prove to my aged father, that being his son, I am not naturally 
at least a spiritless coward. For it is base for a man 
who meets no change in evils, to wish a length of iife^. 
Since what pleasure hath one day by another, adding to, 
or taking from the necessity of dying*? I would not 
buy, at any price, that man who warms himself with 
empty hopes. No; or nobly to live, or to die nobly, 
becomes the generous man'. Thou hast heard all I have 
to say. 

Ch. None will ever say, Ajax, that thou hast spoken sen- 
timents of suppositious growth, but of thy own spirit. Yet 
desist, and grant thy friends to prevail o"er thy purpose, dis- 
missing these anxious thoughts. 

Tec. Ajax, my lord, there is not a greater evil to man- 

1 " Ka\\i(7Tsia proprie est prcemium pulchritudinis, ut apud Lucia- 
num in Dearutn judicio. Hie simpliciter prcBmium valet, qucd decent 
Lexica. ILaWicrTtviiv esse fortissime se gerere, ex male intellecto 
Herodoti loco 7, 180, natum est." Musgrave. 

2 That is, by his noble action; since on death he was at all events 
resolved. 

3 Such is the wish of Parolles, in All's Well that End's Well. 

^ If Hermann's reading avaBtiaa be adopted, we must take rjfispa Trap' 
rjfiap by itself. Hermann gives the passage thus: " What pleasure can 
day alternating with day present, when it does nothing but either add or 
take away from the necessity of dying?" Tr. — I have adopted this view: 
see Wunder, who quotes Trach. 943, sqq. B. 

^ Guard. What work is here? — Charmian, is this well done? 
Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess, 
Descended of so many royal kings. 

Ant. and Cleo. Act 5. so. 2. 



486—518. A.TAX. 255 

kind, than slavery's forced lot^ But I was begotten of a 
free father, a man powerful by his wealth among Phrygians, 
if any were. Yet now I am a slave ; for so, 1 ween, it seemed 
fit to the gods, and above all to thy hand. Wherefore, since 
that I have shared thy bed, I am a well-wisher to thee and 
thine, and conjure thee by Jove Guardian of the Hearth^, and 
thy couch whereby thou wert united to me, donot think me 
deserving to get offensive language from thine enemies, leav- 
ing me a spoil for the hand of any. Since, shouldst thou die, 
and, being deceased, abandon me, bethink thee that on that 
very day I too, violently seized on by the Greeks, shall eat 
the bread of slavery with thy son. And some one among my 
t}Tants shall say with bitter taunt, harrowing me by his 
words, " Behold the consort of Ajax, M'ho was of might pre- 
eminent amid our host, — what servitude, in exchange for how 
envied a lot, does she support!"' Thus some one will say. 
And me fortune will drive to this ; 'tis to thee and thy family 
words like these are a disgrace. But respect .thy father, 
whom thou abandonest in forlorn old age : respect thy mother, 
allotted to the heritage of many years, who often implores the 
gods that thou mayest return home alive. And, prince ! 
compassionate thy son, in that, bereft of childhood's mu-tm-e, 
abandoned by thee, he will be thrust about by no friendly 
guardians: how much of ill this is, that thou at thy death 
wilt bequeath to him and me'. For to me there remains no 
longer any one to whom I can look, save thee, for thou hast 
annihilated my country with thy spear : and my mother and 
my father another fiite took off to be in tlieir deaths inhabit- 
ants of Hades*. What then could be to me a country in thy 
^ Lobeck would exclude the idea of slavery from the Greek expression 
here, as unsuitable to Tecmessa's purpose. Tr. — But cf. ^sch Choeph, 75. 
dvdyKav djti^tTrroXtv. Soph. El. 1193. See also Eustath. p. 1089, 38: 
irapd ^o(poKXti dvayicaia tv\i] r) SqvXikt]. B. 

2 A most solemn adjuration, and used by Themistocles to Admetus, in 
his greatest need. Thuc. I. 

^ These sentiments find a parallel in those of the Sabine women in Livy : 
and the lamentation of Andromache throughout is very similar- — 
An only child, once comfort of my pains, 
Sad product now of hopeless love, remains! 
No nioi'e to smile upon his sire, no friend 
To help him now, no father to defend ! 

Pope's II. B. XXTI. 1. 620. 
* Hermann remarks on the gratuitous barbarity of making Ajax kill ths 



256 AJAX. 519—542. 

Btead? what prosperity could I have? in thee is centred all 
my hope of safety. Nay, preserve the remembrance of me 
too. Believe me, it is fitting that memory should abide by a 
man, if anywhere he have received aught pleasui-able' ; for 
it is kindness that aye engenders kindness, but from whom- 
soever the recollection of a benefit received melts away, that 
man could never be of generous births 

Ch. Ajax, I could wish that thou didst feel pity in thy 
heart, even as I do, for then wouldst thou assent to her 
words. 

Aj. Nay, largely shall she meet with approbation from me 
at least, if she but dare aright to execute the task enjoined. 

Tec. Nay, my dear Ajax, for my part I will obey thee in 
everything. 

A J. Go fetch me now my son, that I may see him. 

Tec. Nay, but in alarm I rescued him from thee. 

Aj. In these my woes? or what meanest thou? 

Tec. Lest he, ill fated, having haply fallen in thy way, 
Bhould die. 

Aj. This were, indeed, well suited to my fate. 

Tec. Nay, therefore I guarded him, to prevent this. 

Aj. I approve of the action and the forethought you prac- 
fised. 

Tec. By doing what then, in this case, can I profit you? 

A J. Give me to speak to him, and see him before me. 

Tec Well, but he is at hand, in keeping of the attendants. 

Aj. Why then delays he to vouchsafe his presence? 

Tec My boy, thy father calls thee. Bring him hither, 
whoever of the ser^-ants have him in charge, in thy hands, 
mother of Tecmessa, and adopts Porson's reading, supposing, however, 
that there is a line omitted. According to him, the lines stand thus: 
. . oi) yap fiOL Trarpid' yaruxrag copi, 

Kal fiTjrip' oXXt] fioXpa rbv (pvaavra re 
KaOeXXev "AtSov 9ava<yifx.ovg oiKrjTopag. 
1 Si bene quid de merui, fuit aut tibi quicquam 

Dulce meum, miserere domus labantis, et istam, 
Oro, si quis adhuc precibus locvis, exue mentem. 

^n. IV. V. 317. 
2 Brunck has paid no attention to Porson's remarks on the metre in this 
passage ; but Lobeck has adopted the Professoi-'s emendation of Suidas, 
For just reasons against the other readings proposed by Porson., vid. 
Sealfc's Metres, p. 11. 



543—569. AJAX. 257 

Aj. Dost thou speak to one drawing near, or one who 

heeds not thy words ? 

Tec. Even now this attendant is conveying him from no 
gi'eat distance. 

A J. Bring, bring him hither, for he will not shudder at 
beholding this fresh -slaughtered butchery, if he be truly in 
his father's ways my son. Nay, forthwith it is needful to 
break him in, as a colt, to the stern lore of his sire, and that 
he be rendered like him in nature. My child, be thou more 
fortunate than thy father, but in all else his counterpart, and 
thou canst not be a coward. Yet even now thus much I 
have to envy thee, for that thou art sensible of none of these 
present evils. For in feeling nought^ is centred the sweetest 
life^ until thou learn to know what it is to rejoice, what to 
feel pain. But when thou art arrived at this, it is thy duty 
to prove on thy father's foes, thyself how" great, from how 
great a father thou art sprung. Till then be fostered by light 
gales, cherishing thy early life, the joy of this thy mother. 
There is no fear, I know, that any of the Greeks should in- 
sult thee mth hateful contumely; no, though thou art far 
from me, such a M'atchful protector in Teucer shall I leave for 
thee, an unwearied guardian of thy nurture', although at 
present he is gone far out of sight, busied in the chase of 
foemen. But, O ye shielded warriors, seafaring people, to 
j'ou also I enjoin this common favour, and announce ye to 
him my mandate, that he bring this my son to my home, and 
present him to Telamon and my mother, I mean Eriboea*, 

^ Ah ! how regardless of their doom 
The little victims play ! 
No sense have they of ills to come, 
No care beyond to-d;\y. — Gray. 
2 Hermann here inserts a line which Brunck on the authority of Sto- 
baeus had omitted, it is this: 

TO [xrj ^poj'tiv yap, Kctpr avojSvvov KaKov. 
Ajax admits ignorance to be an evil, but still asserts that "where igno- 
rance is bliss ^tis folly to be wise." 

2 Lobeck praises, in his note on this passage, Reiske's emendation, who 
reads ifxTTa, Kti ravvv; and the scholiast on v. 122 says the lonians use 
'ijXTn]Q, the Attics tjiiraQ and 'iinta. 

■* Eriboea, sometimes called Periboea, was daughter of Alcathous, king 
of Megara, and son of Pelops, and is said to have been sold by her father 
on suspicion of an intrigue with Telamon, and carried to Cyprus, whither 
Telamon followed and married her. 



258 AJAX. 570—594. 

that he may ever be the support of their old age, until they 
shall reach the dark chambers of the nether god. And mine 
arms let no masters of the games, nor he my bane, set as a 
prize to the Greeks ; but do thou, my son Eurysaces, take 
and keep thy namesake, my shield of seven bulls' hides, that 
none can break; wielding it through the thickly twisted han- 
dle' : my other arms in common shall anon be buried with 
me'. But take now with all speed this my son, and make 
fast the house, nor raise lamentations within my tent. A 
very j^iteous object, truly, is a woman. Close the door 
speedily: 'tis not the skilful leech's part to howl an incanta- 
tion over a sore that asks the knife. 

Ch. I tremble at hearing this eagerness, for thy sharpened 
tongue likes me not. 

Tec. Ajax, my lord, what canst thou purpose in thy mind 
to do? 

Aj. Ask not, question not; best be resigned. 

Tec. Ah me, how I despair! I conjuie thee by thy child, 
and by the gods, abandon us not. 

Aj. Too much thou vexest me; knowest thou not that I 
no longer am the gods debtor^ to be of service to any? 

Tec. Good words. 

A J. Speak to those that hear. 

Tec. And wilt thou not be persuaded? 

Aj. Thou pratest overmuch already. 

Tec. Ay, for 1 fear me, prince. 

Aj. Will ye not stay her quickly? 

Tec. In heaven's name, be softened. 

'1 For a description of such a shield, see Wunder's extracts from Wes- 
seling and Lobeck. B. 

2 This was a common custom in ancient times, as may be gathered from 
Thucydides, L. I. c. viii. Tr. — Such was also the custom of the Danes. 
See Olaus Magnus, quoted by Stevens on Hamlet, Act I. ; " That thou, 
dead corse, again in complete steel" Seward, Earl of Northumberland, 
was, by his own desire, buried armed cap a pie. B. 

3 A similar expression is found in Virgil: — 

Nos juvenem exanimum et nil jam coelestibus uUis 

Debentem vano moesti comitamur honore. 
Yet it would perhaps be going too far to say that Ajax meant nothing con- 
temptuous to the gods. — Since writing the above note, Hermann's edition 
has appeared, and the translation is altered to suit that edition in this 
passage. 



594—632. AJAX. 259 

A J. Methinks thou hast but a fool's wisdom, if thou pur- 
posest but now to school my temper. 

Ch. Illustrious Salamis, thou somewhere, rocked by ocean^, 
art situate in happiness'*, ever conspicuous to all: while I 
unhappy from time of old, tarry for the Idsean meadowy 
pastm-es as a reward, through countless months*, continu- 
ally worn away by regular and unvaried time ; having a sorry 
hope that still I shall one day reach the abhorred destructive*, 
Pluto. And now the cureless Ajax is upon me, a fresh assail- 
ant*, alas! alas! co-mate of a heaven-sent frenzy; whom 
once, in former time, thou sentest forth as a conqueror in 
furious war; but now, on the contrary, his senses all astray*, 
he has proved a deep affliction to his friends. But the former 
deeds of his hands, deeds of the noblest valour, fell, ay, fell, 
thankless to the thankless, the unwise Atridae. Surely, 
somewhere a mother'^, nursed in the lap of ancient days and 
hoar old age, when she shall have heard that he is diseased 
as with the sickness of the soul, hapless shall utter not ah ! 
Linus, ah ! Linus^, nor plaint of the nightingale, that piteous 
bird, but shrill-toned shrieks will she wail forth : while blows, 
struck by her own hand, shall faU on her breaets, and rend- 

1 This epithet, though perfectly suitable to Delos, appears rather mis- 
placed here; and Lobeck suggests, that as^schylus has applied the term 
QakaaaoTvXriKTOQ to Salamis, it is probable that Sophocles wrote oKl- 
TrXaKTog. This reading is adopted by Hermann. 

2 Cf. Homer II. (3, 626, vrjcrojv, at vaiovai Trsprjv oXog. B. 

2 Hermann proposes to read the passage thus: 'iSala fiifivio Xaijuwvi' 
airoiva, firiviov avr]pi9jxog, Idcea pratensia proemia eocpecto, mensium 
innumerabilis. These prcemia pratensia are the overthrow and sack of 
Troy. Tr. — I have followed Hermann, with Dindorf, although I am 
doubtful of any attempt to restore this difficult passage successfully. B- 

^ See Buttni. Lexil. s. v. The word may be also taken for " dark," 
** gloomy." B. 

^ "E^f^pog is, in the Frogs of Aristophanes, applied to Sophocles him- 
self, and the Oxford translator has this note: "The epeSpog (tertianus) 
was a combatant, who waited the decision of some trial of prowess in the 
games, with intent to offer himself as opponent to the conqueror," 
p. 169. 

^ Literally " feeding apart from his senses." 

5" There is great beauty in the suppression of the name throughout this 
passage : it may in some measure be thought to resemble the veil of 
Timanthes. 

8 Cf. vEsch. Ag. 121, 139, and for the origin of the ditty, Pausan. ix. 
29, with Kuhn's note. B. 

s 2 



2G0 AJAX. 633— G69. 

ings of her hoary hair. For better were he hiding in the 
grave, than hopelessly distempered ; who coming of his fa- 
ther's race the bravest of the hard-toiling Greeks, is no longer 
constant to his natural temper, but is wandering without it. 
Ah. wretched sire, what au insupportable calamity of thy 
child awaits thee to learn ! such as no age of the -^acidae hath 
ever yet fostered, at least save this man ! 

Aj. Time, the long, the countless, brings to light all that 
is unseen, and when disclosed, conceals, nor is aught hope- 
less ; no, both the terrible oath and the hardened spirit are 
his prize. For I, too, that lately was so firm in my dread 
purpose, like steel, when dipped^, by this my wife here, have 
been womaned in my speech : and I feel pity at leaving her 
a widow, and my child fatherless, amid foes. But I wiU go 
to the baths and meadows along the shore, that having cleansed 
off my pollutions I may escape the weighty anger of the 
goddess. And as I go, wherever I shall light upon an un- 
trodden spot, there will I hide this my sword, of weapons the 
most hateful, burying it in earth, there where none shall ever 
see it ; but O may night and Hades guard it below. For 
from the hour .wherein I took to my hand this, a present from 
Hector my deadliest foe, never to this day have I got aught 
acceptable from the Greeks. No, true is the popular adage. 
" The gifts of enemies are no gifts'^, nor profitable." Hence- 
forth, therefore, will we know how to submit to the gods, and 
learn to respect the sons of Atreus. They are our rulers, 
therefore we must give way. Why not? for all that is ter- 
rible and all that is mightiest gives way to ofiice'. First 

1 /3a0p' crldripoc wf. " Tenuiora ferramenta oleo restingui mos est, ne 
aqua in fragilitatem durentur." The scholiast has a note to the same pur- 
pose. We see then that the allusion will apply to what follows as well as 
to what precedes it in the text. 

2 " By what argument it may from this verse be gathered that the Medea 
of Euripides is older than the Ajax of Sophocles, Elmsley has stated at 
the six hundred and fifth line of the former." Hermann. 

3 There is a passage very similar to this, which it may not be useless to 
quote, whether as an argument to support Shakespeare's claim to the play 
whence it comes, by the evident marks of his style which it bears, or to 
prove an old assertion, that in him is contained the finest study of the 
English language: — 

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre. 
Observe degree, priority, and place. 



670—704. AJAX. 26] 

snow-paced winters give place to fruitful summer, and the 
orb of murky night retires for the day with his white steeds 
to kindle his light\ and the blast of the dreadful winds hath 
lulled the roaring main, nay, all-o'erpowering sleep looses 
where he hath bound, nor always holds us captive. And now 
shall we not know moderation? Since, for my part, I am 
even now aware that our enemy is so far to be hated by us, 
as though he may yet again be our friend ; and to my friend 
I will be willing thus far by aiding to be of service, as if he 
were not always to remain so^. For to the many among 
men the haven of fellowship is faithless: but in all this it 
will be well. Do thou, woman, having retired within, pray 
to the gods continually to accomplish what my heart desires : 
and do ye, my clansmen, do me this honour alike with her. 
And signify to Teucer, should he return, to look well to me, 
and at the same time be a friend to you. For I go thither, 
whither go I must; but do ye what I tell you, and soon, 
perhaps, you may learn that I, though now unfortunate, have 
found deliverance. 

Ch. With love I thrill, and overjoyed I soar aloft. O Pan, 
O Pan, Pan, Pan, thou ocean- wanderer, show thyself from 
the craggy ridge of snow-beaten Cyllene', thou princely 
founder of heaven's choir, that company ing with me thou 
might essay the self-taught Gnossian and Nyssean dances: 
for now it is my care to lead the chorus. And mayest thou, 
Apollo, Delian king, coming over the Icarian sea*, accord me 
Insisture^ course, proportion, season, form, 
Office, and custom, in all line of order. 

Troilds and Cressida. 

^ See Milton, Book VII., and Thomson's Ode to the Seasons. 

2 This is the sentiment to which Cicero alludes, de Amicitia, c. 16 
" Negabat ullam vocem inimiciorem amicitise potuisse reperiri, quam ejus, 
qui dixisset, ita amare oportere, ut si aliquando esset osurus: nee vero se 
adduci posse, ut hoc, quemadmodum putaretur, a Biante esse dictum ere- 
deret, qui sapiens habitus esset unus e septem; sed impuri cujusdam, aut 
ambitiosi, aut omnia ad suam potentiam revocantis, esse sententiam." 

^ Cyllene is a mountain in Arcadia, the birthplace of Mercury, who 
shared with Pan the right of patronage there. Gnossus was a town of 
Crete, celebrated for its being the birthplace of Ariadne. There were 
several cities of the name of Nysa, of which the most renowned was in 
India, said to be the place where Bacchus was educated, and whence he 
derived his name Dionysius. 

■• The name " Icarian" was given to that part of the iEgean sea which 
encircles Mycone and Gyaros, the supposed scene of Icarus's fall. 



282 AJAX. 705—743. 

thy distlng^uished presence, for ever kind. For Mars hath 
dispelled the heavy affliction from his eyes. lo! lo! now, 
now again, O Jove, is the white propitious light of day with 
us, that we may approach the swift vessels that speed on the 
brine : since Ajax is again forgetful of his troubles, and has 
again performed the most sacred ordinances of the gods, with 
strictest observance worshipping. Time, the mighty, withers 
all away. Nor would I pronounce aught impossible, at least 
when unexpectedly Ajax has repented of his wrath and dire 
feuds with the Atridae. 

Messenger. My friends, I would first tellyou^: Teucer is 
just arrived from theMysian rocks^: but as he advances into the 
middle of the camp, he is reviled by all the Greeks at once : 
for, having discovered him coming slowly from a distance, they 
encircled him all round ; and then began to assail him with 
reproaches from this side and that ; and there was not one 
who did not, calling him the brother of the madman and 
traitor to the army; that he should not save himself from 
death by being thoroughly mangled with stones. So that 
they came to such a pitch, that their swords, seized by their 
hands, were drawn from out the scabbards. But their strife, 
having run to its greatest length, ceases by words of recon- 
cilement from the elders. But where's Ajax, that I may tell 
him all this ? for to qui* lords it is our duty to disclose all our 
tale. 

Ch. He is not within, but has just disappeared, having 
coupled new plans with new deportment. 

Mes. Woe ! woe ! woe ! Then he who sent me on this 
errand, sent me too tardily, or I was slow in coming. 

Ch. But what is there too tardily managed in this matter ? 

Mess. Teucer forbade to let the man go forth from within 
his abode, before he himself should be present. 

Ch. Nay, but look you, he is gone, having betaken himself 
to the best of purposes, that he may by reconcilement with 
the gods be freed from their wrath. 

1 Musgrave conjectures, that in allusion to the well-known custom of 
heralds among the ancients, we should read ^iXov to Trpuirov: Lobeck 
removes the period at the end of the line, and joins the two last of the 
above three words, retaining <pi\oi. Hermann follows Musgrave. 

2 For mention of Mysia, see Herodotus, L. I. Of this country, which 
was in alliance with Troy, Telephus was monarch at the time of the Trojan 



741—774. AJAX, 263 

Mess. These thy words are fraught with abundant folly, if 
indeed Calchas prophesy aught with right judgment^ 

Ch. What is its nature I and what knowing of this matter 
[prophesies he ?] 

Mess. Thus much I know, and chanced to be present. For 
from the council and the kingly circle Calchas having retired 
by himself, apart from the Atridee, and placed his right hand 
in Teucer's in friendly guise, bade and enjoined him by all 
manner of means to confine Ajax throughout the day now 
shining, to~day, this very day, within his tent ; nor let him 
go and suffer him to pass, if ever he would see him again 
alive : for on this day only the wrath of celestial Minerva 
f)ersecutes him : so spake he and said. For the seer declared, 
that overgrown and unwieldy'^ bodies are wont to fall under 
severe misfortunes by divine agency, when one that springs 
from a mortal stock is not of consequence minded as a mortal 
should. But he, at the very moment that he sallied forth 
from home, was found of his father, ad\dsing him well, too 
inconsiderate^; for he strictly charges him, "" Son, be thy AvisL 
to conquer with the spear, but be it to conquer ever through 
the gods." But he with haught and senseless vaunt replied, 
" Father, in concert with the gods even one that was nothing 
might obtain the victory ; but I, even without them, am 
assured I shall snatch to me this glory." So proud a boast 
did he utter. Then, a second time, to immortal Pallas, when 
urging him she bade him turn his gory hand against the foe : 
then answered he a speech dire and unutterable, " Queen, be 
thou at the side of the other Greeks ; where I am, the battle 



' This distinguished seer possessed his inspiration by birthright, being 
the grandson of Idmon, the soothsayer that attended the Argonautic 
expedition. 

2 I prefer reading KavoTjra with Wunder, and rendering "vain and 
impious." See his note. B. 

2 The reason which is here given for the misfortune of Ajax is precisely 
that of which Aristotle approves, who, after having rejected the two ex- 
tremes of virtue and vice, proceeds to state his idea of a character adapted 
to tragedy : ** And such a man is he, who neither in virtue and upright- 
ness is transcendant, nor yet changes his lot to misfortune through vice 
and depravity, but one that does it through some error, and that a man of 
high renown and prosperity, such as were (Edipus and Thyestes." Poetics, 
sect. 25. 



264 AJAX. 775—799. 

never sliall break through'." By words such as these he 
earned the ruthless anger of the goddess, being of a spirit un- 
suitable to man. But if indeed he live to-day, we haply may 
be, with heaven's aid, his preservers. Thus much the prophet 
said, but Teueer instantly sends me from the conclave, bear- 
ing these his mandates to thee to observe : but if we are 
foiled of our purpose, then is the hero no more, if Calchas be 
wise. 

Ch. O wretched Tecmessa, of hapless race, come forth and 
look on this man, what manner of words he utters. For this 
cuts to the quick, that none may joy therein. 

Tec. Why rouse ye me, miserable that I am, from my 
seat, when but now respited from exhaustless ills ? 

Ch. Listen to this man, since he comes bringing us matter 
that concerns Ajax, whereat I grieve. 

Tec. Ah me ! what sayest thou, man ? Are we then un- 
done ? 

Mess. I know not thy circumstances, but I have no hopes 
of Ajax, if he be from home. 

Tec. Well then, he is from home, and therefore I am in 
agonies at what thou hast to say''. 

Mess. Teueer sends charge to confine him under close 
cover of his tent, nor let him go out alone. 

Tec. But where is Teueer, and wherefore says he this ? 

Mess. He is just arrived : and apprehends^ that this de- 
parture of Ajax, that he tells, is fatal. 

1 Homer represents Ajax of a temper in some degree resembling this, 
though not so haughty, in a prayer which Longinus has quoted and com- 
mended : — 

Zev Trdrep, aWd av pvcrai vir' ijspog vlag ' AxctiCJv, 
Tioirjaov d' a'i6i]v' Sbg 8' 6^9d\fjioL(riv ideaOai, 
'Ev Se (pdu Kai oXecrcrov. 

2 Lobeck places a note of interrogation after wdiveiv. 

^ " Bothe has ingeniously conjectured tkiti^uv tp'spu. But no correction 
is needed, if the passage be but rightly taken, and one resort not to such 
silliness (inepta) as to make iXTTL^tiv mean even, metuere; for not in all 
cases, but where it suits the sense, is this verb introduced in such a manner 
as to be seemingly used to denote fear, though in reality it is to be taken as 
expressing hope. In the present instance when the messenger says, 
Sperat Teueer se hunc Ajacis exitum funestum nunciaturum esse, he 
means that Teueer has a hope that, by reporting the fatal issue about to 
follow Ajax on going abroad, he shall effect his detention at home for that 



800—822. AJAX. 265 

Tec. Unhappy me I having learnt it from what possible 
person ? 

Mess. From Thestor's prophet-son, on this present day, 
that it brings him life or death. 

Tec. Ah me ! friends, assist me against this emergency of 
fortmie^, and hasten, — some that Teucer may come quickly, 
and some to the western bends of the momitains, some to the 
eastern go and search out the hero's ill-omened sally. For I 
know that I was deceived by the man, and made outcast 
from my former favour with him. Ah me ! my child, what 

shall I do ? not sit here, no ; I will be gone thither 

whithersoever I shall have strength to. Let us away, let us 
hasten hence ; 'tis not the moment for sitting still, for those 
at least who wish to save a man that hurries to death. 

Ch. I am ready to be gone, nor will I show it merely in 
words, for speed of action and of feet at once shall follow 
them^. 

Aj. The slayer is set upright, where it best may pierce (if 
one have leisure even for consideration), the gift of Hector, a 
man of foreigners most detested by me, and most hateful to 
behold. But it has fixed itself in the hostile soil of Troy, 
fresh sharpened on the steel- consuming whetstone. And I 
myself, having well prepared, have fixed it, the kindest friend 
to Ajax in furtherance of his speedy death. Thus well am I 

day." Does the learned professor (Hermann) mean that IXttH^siv cannot 
be applied t ) our expectation of an evil ? To say nothing of Polybius, 
who so uses it, B. 9. c. 6. ses. 9, see Thucydides, 1. i. and 7. 61. — 
IXTtig Tov (pojSov. See also Arist. Aves, v. 9ofi. ed. Brunck. Hermann's 
own interpretation is surely far-fetched. Tr. But the construction is 
hardly satisfactory. I should prefer following Bothe, as Wunder has 
done. B. 

' This passage supports an opinion of Lobeck already stated, since here 
we find no allusion to slavery, although the same expression is used at 
V. 485. See the note on that line. 

2 The departure of the Chorus here in order to give room for the exhi- 
bition of Ajax' death is censured by Brunck, but defended by Lobeck ou 
the example of ^schylus in the Eumenides, and Euripides in Helen and 
Alcestis. And he also remarks, that the difficulty which induced ..^schylus 
to relate the death of Ajax, namely, the open nature of the stage, was 
evaded by Sophocles, who carries his hero as far as possible back from the 
eyes of the spectators to the inner scene. As Potter justly observes, this 
single speech of Ajax is worth all the unities, an attempt to maintain which 
has been so lately made, and ably refuted. 



266 AJAX. 823—850. 

furnished. But after all this, do thou first, Jupiter, assist 
me, for it is but reason. Nor will I ask of thee to obtain an ^ 
ample boon. Send for me some messenger, carrying the evil 
tidings to Teucer, that he may be the first to take me up 
when fallen on this fresh-sprinkled swo.'d : and that I may 
not, having been ere that discovered by any of my foes, be 
hurled a cast-away to dogs and birds a prey. This much I 
beg of thee, Jove ; and with thee I call on the nether Mer- 
cury, conductor of ghosts, to lull me softly to repose, Avhen I 
have burst through my side with this my sword, by a bound 
quick and without a struggle. I call too. the ever- virgins to 
my aid ; them, ever beholding all the sufferings of mortality, 
the awful Furies, with gigantic stride, to learn of me how I, 
unhappy, perish thoroughly by xYtreus' sons; and may they 
grasp them all together, villains as they are, by a death most 
vile, and doomed to utter destruction: even as they look on 
me falling self-murdered, so self-murdered may they perish by 
their dearest offspring^ Go, ye swift and avenging Furies, 
banquet on them, spare not the whole armed host. And thou, 
that makest the high heaven thy chariot course, O sun*! when 
thou shalt look on the land of my fathers, checking thy 
golden-backed rein, announce my woes and my fate to my 
aged sire, and the wretched mother that nursed me. Full 
surely she, unhappy, when she shall hear this report, will send 

* Musgrave considers this passage to refer to the death of Ulysses, by his 
son Telegonus. Certainly Agamemnon did not fall by the contrivance of 
any of his children ; and as for Menelaus, he, if we may credit Homer, 
was carried to the islands of the blest, without having tasted death; how 
deservedly, we may gather from Herodotus' account of his conduct in 
Egypt. The curse of Ajax is remarkably grand and awful^ but will hardly 
bear comparison with the celebrated imprecation in Lord Byron's Giaour. 
Tk. — Wunder has amused himself by casting out vss. 839 — 42 ! B. 
2 This most sublime idea has been well imitated by Seneca: 

O decus mundi, radiate Titan, 

Die sub Aurora positis Sabaeis, 

Die sub Occasu positis Iberis, 

Die ad aeternos pruperare manes 

Herculem et regnum canis inquieti. 

Here. JEt.Y, 1516. Tr. 
Cf. Eurip. Phoen. 1. w ti)v ev d<7Tpoig ovpavov Ttjxvhjv o^ov Kai 
Xpv(roKoWi]Toi(Tiv liJil3ej3u)Q Si(ppoiQ,"B.Xie, Ooalg 'iTnroLcnv dXicrffcjv (fkoya, 
Claudian. de Prob. et Olyb. 1. *' Sol, qui flammigeris mundum com- 
plexus habenis, volvis inexhausto redeuntia ssecula motu. Sparge diem 
meliore coma, crinemque repexi Blandius elate surgant temone jugales.*' B. 



851—888. AJAX. 267 

forth a dreadful wail throughout the whole city. But it avails 
not to lament thus vainly : no, the deed must be done, and 
with all speed. O death, death, come now and look upon me; 
although thee, indeed, there also shall I meet and accost. 
But thee O present brilliance of the lustrous day, and the car- 
borne sun, I salute now for the last time, and never again 
hereafter. O Hght! O sacred soil of mine own country, 
Salamis! O floor of my father's hearth, and thou, illustrious 
Athens ! and race that shared my nurture ! and ye fountains, 
and rivers here, and the Trojan plains I addi-ess ; farewell, my 
fosterers: this his last word does Ajax speak to you: all else 
will I tell to the dead in HadesV 

Semi-Ch. Double double toil and trouble^! for whither, 
whither, ay, whither went I not? and yet no place knows to 
learn [of thee.] Hist! hist! again I hear some noise. 

Semi-Ch. "lis but ours, the ship's company, partners in 
your voyage. 

Semi-Ch. Well, and what then? 

Semi-Ch. AU the western side of the fleet has been 
traversed. 

Semi-Ch. And hast thou then got 

Semi-Ch. Trouble in abundance, and nought more to be 
seen. 

Semi-Ch. Nay, nor to me then, on the measured track in 
the east, does the hero any where present himself to view. 

Ch. Who, I pray, who of the industrious fishermen, plying 
his sleepless quest for prey, or who of the Olympian god- 
desses', or of the torrent rivers of the Bosphorus, if haply an}^- 
where he descries the chief of savage spirit roaming, will tell 
me ; for grievous it is that I, a wanderer, should approach no 



^ It may be thought that the play should have ended with a speech so 
sublime as the preceding ; but Hermann observes, that the spirit of the 
ancient tragedy would by no means permit the omission of the funeral 
lamentations, and that in the cruelty of the Spartan !Menelaus there must 
have been something very acceptable to Athenian ears. 

2 Literally, " trouble brings trouble to trouble." 

2 The feminine adjective is used with 9tu)v here by a similar form to 
'EXXdg avrip, and others of the same sort, on which see Porson on Orest. 
264. Phoeniss. 1038. and Lobeck on Aj. 323. Herm. Tr.— We must 
observe that lopig has been cast out by Erfurdt, Dindorf, and Wunder, 
and that the Oreades and Drjades of Mount Olympus are meant. B. 



268 AJAX. 889—919. 

course of my lengthened toils ; nay, nor discover where an 
enfeebled^ man like him is. 

Tec. Alas! ah me! 

Ch. Whose cry issued from the neighbouring grove? 

Tec. Alas, unhappy me! 

Ch. I see the hapless captive bride Tecmessa overwhelmed 
amid this grief. 

Tec, I am lost, undone; I am utterly ruined, my fi-iends. 

Ch. What is it? 

Tec Here is our Ajax Ij^ng just now newly slain, folded 
over his hidden^ sword. 

Ch. Alas, and woe is me! for my return! All me! prince, 
thou hast killed thy fellow-seaman here. Unhappy me! O 
lady, sad at heart! 

Tec 'Tis time to say, Ai! Ail since such is his fate. 

Ch. By whose hand then could he ill-fated have ever 
effected this? 

Tec Himself, by his own hand; 'tis plain, for this his 
sword stuck in the ground, whereon he fell, convicts him. 

Ch. Ah me! for this my misery! 'twas then alone, by 
friends unfenced, thou didst shed thy blood : while I, the all- 
senseless, the all-ignorant, neglected thee. Where, where 
lies the intractable Ajax^ of ill-omened name? 

Tec. Mark me, he is not to be gazed on. No, I will shroud 
him entirely in this enfolding robe, since none that was his 
friend could bear to look on him exhaling upwards at the 
nostrils*, and out of the red gash, the gore now blackened from 

^ So Hermann, observing " tanto magis indignari Chorum, quod Ajacem 
•vix raorbo liberatum ipse valens assequi non potuerit." B. 

2 For Kpv(f>aii>j Musgrave proposes here to read KaQai}X(^, and adds, 
** desideratur certe epithetum, quod prseseutem ensis conditionem declaret." 
Tr. But see Wunder on v. 809. Ajax had buried his sword deep in the 
ground, lest the weight of his body, when falling, might turn the blade 
aside. B. 

2 These allusions would be better conveyed by using '^ Aias " through- 
out the play, as Mr. Burges has done. " Where, where lies Aias the 
stubborn and lucklessly named ?" B. 

'^ Wakefield (Sylv. Crit. p. 104.) proposes to read Trpoc; pivog, and 
quotes Statins : — 

Corruit, extremisque animae singultibus errans 
Alterutj-is, nunc ore venit, nunc vulnere sanguis. 

Theb. III. 90. 



919—955. AJAX. 269 

his self-inflicted death-wound. Ah me, what shall I do? 
AMiat friend will bear thee off? ^^^lere is Teucer? I trust 
that he may come, if come he should, in time to help lay out 
for bm'ial this his fallen brother! Ah luckless Ajax! what 
thou wert ! what thou art ! deserving to meet with mourning:, 
ay, even fi-om thy foes^. 

Ch. Wretched man! thou wert then obstinately bent, at 
some time, to accomplish thine evil lot of endless w^oes : such 
words wouldst thou sigh out all night and day, stern heart, of 
evil sound to the Atridae, with deadly passion. Surely that 
time was a chief source of troubles-, when the contest of 
superior valour was proposed about Achilles' arms. 

Tec. Ah me, me! 

Ch. The pang of genuine grief pierces to thine heart, I 
know. 

Tec. Ah me, me! 

Ch. I doubt not thou sighest thus doubly, lady, but now 
despoiled of such a friend as this. 

Tec. 'Tis thine to fancy all this, but mine too truly to feel. 

Ch. I confess it. 

Tec. Ah me, my child, to what a yoke of slavery pass we! 
what taskmasters are over us ! 

Ch. Alas ! in this thy sorrow thou hast made mention of 
the imutterable^ deed of the two unfeeling Atridaj : but may 
heaven avert it. 

Tec Nay, aU this had never stood as it does, but with 
heaven's will. 

Ch. But far too heavy is this burden they have brought 
upon us. 

Tec And yet such affliction as this does the dread goddess 
Pallas, child of Jove, gender, to gratify Ulysses. 

Ch. Ay, verily, the chief of many toils in his darkling soul 
mocks us with scorn, and laughs with abundant laughter at 

^ And if thou tell'st the heavy story right, 
Upon my soul, the hearers will shed tears ; 
Yea, e'en my foes will shed fast-falling tears, 
And say, Alas! it was a piteous deed. 

3rd Part of Hen. VI., Act 1. 
2 " Ille dies primus leti, primusque malorum 
Causa fuit." — ^n. II. B. 
3 Musgrave proposes dvaicutv, rejecting the interpretation of dvav^ov 
by infandtim. 



270 . AJVX. 956—982. 

the madman's sor^o^ys, alas! alas! and with him Atreus' two 
royal sons hearing them. 

Tec. Then let them laugh and joy over the woes of Ajax. 
Perhaps, mark me ! though when alive they desired him not, 
they will mourn him dead, in the needful time of battle'. For 
the weak-minded, while they hold in their hands aught good, 
knew it not, ere some one have cast it fi-om him. More bitter 
has his death been to me than sweet to them% but delightful 
to himself. For all that he longed to possess he gained for 
himself, the very death he wished. How then could they laugh 
out against him? By the gods he died, not by them^, — no. 
Then let Ulysses be vainly insolent : for they have Ajax no 
longer; no, but having bequeathed to me sorrows and 
lamentations, he is departed. 

Teucer. Ah me ! me ! 

Ch. Be silent, for methinks I hear the voice of Teucer, 
crying out in a tone that intently dwells on this calamity. 

Teu. O dearest Ajax! O person of my brother! hast thou 
then dealt with thyself even as report prevails ? 

Ch. Teucer, the man is no more ! of this be assured. 

Teu. Then woe is me, for my heavy affliction! 

Ch. Since it is so 

Teu. Unhappy me ! unhappy ! 

Ch. 'Tis time to groan. 

Teu. O too dire calamity! 

* See Brunck's note. 

— — • For it so falls out, 

That what we have we prize not to the worth, 
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost, 
"Why then we rack the value, then we find 
The virtue that possession would not show us 
Whiles it was ours. 

Much Ado about Nothing, Act 4. Sc. 1. 

2 MaXXov is understood. Thus Homer : 

BovXou' lyu) Xabv (toov liinevai, ri cnroXkaQai. 

B. I. V. 117. 

3 To fall by the hands of an enemy worthy of them,, was often a con- 
solation to the dying warriors of antiquity, and is so used by Philoctetes 
to Neoptolemus, on his hearing of Achilles' death. Thus Tarnus in 
VirgU:— 

• — - — Non me tua fervida terrent 

Dicta, ferox : Di me terrent, et Jupiter hostis. 

Mn. XII. 894. 



ft83— 1014. AJAX. 271 

Ch. Too much so, Teucer. 

Teu. Ah, hapless! But what of his child? Vri'iexe m tills 
Trojan land is he? 

Ch. Alone at the tents. 

Teu. Wilt not thou with all speed bring him hither, lest 
any of his foes lay hold of him, as the whelp of a widowed 
lioness? Go, bestir thyself, bear aid. All, mark me! are 
wont to deride the fallen dead\ 

Ch. Nay, moreover, while yet alive, Teucer, the hero 
left a charge that thou shouldst care for Eurysaces, even as 
now thou art caring. 

Tett. Oh thou, of all spectacles to me the most painful that 
I have ever w^ith mine eyes beheld ; thou too. a journey that 
of all journeys has surely most anguished my heart, even that 
which I have now come, O dearest Ajax, when I heard thy 
fate, following up and tracing it step by step ; for the report 
concerning thee, swift as if of some god, pervaded all the 
Greek host, how that thou wert dead and gone. Which I 
miserable hearing, while I was absent from it, was inwardly 
groaning, but now that I see it, am utterly undone. Ah me ! 
Come, uncover, that I may see the whole evil. O sight dread- 
ful to look on, and of bitter daring, of how many pangs having 
deeply sown the seeds for me, dost thou wither ! For whither 
can I betake myself, to what manner of people, I that nowhere 
aided thee in thy troubles ? Doubtless will Telamon, thy fa- 
ther as he is mine, receive me with kind aspect^, and, haply, 
with mild air, returning without thee. For how should he 
not, whose wont it is not, even when fortunate, to wear a 
smile of more than common pleasure ? What will he sup- 
press ? What reproach will he not utter ? That I, the spuri- 
ous offspring of his captive in war' ; that I have by cowardice 

^ Of this savage custom among the ancients, Homer has left us many 
examples, and none more striking than in the case of the fallen Hector, 
which passage Pope has in his translation explained away. II. B. XXII. 

2 Ironically. 

3 Teucer, as he himself afterwards states, was the son of Telamon by 
Hesione, daughter of Laomedon, who had been selected by Hercules as a 
reward to the king of Salamis for his services in that hero's expedition to 
Troy. The event justified these apprehensions of Teucer ; and to avoid 
his father's indignation, he fled to Gvprus, where he founded Salamis. 
Tr. — Sopv TToXtfiiov signifies a captive taken in war, as Tecmessa in v. 
221, ia styled Xkxog SoptdXujTov. B. 



272 AJAX. 1015—1016. 

and immanliness betrayed thee, dearest AJAx, or in treason, 
that 1 mig;ht possess thy sovereignty and patrimony when 
dead. Such words will he, a man of passionate temper, mo- 
rose with age, who is angered to strife by a mere nothing^ 
utter. And in the end shall I, repulsed, be cast out from my 
country, by his words declared a slave, and no freeman. Thus 
much at home : but here, at Troy, many are my foes, and 
little is there to profit me. And all this have I incuri'ed by 
thy death. Ah me ! what shall I do ? how shall I tear thee 
off from this bitter shining'^ sword, the destroyer whereby thou 
didst expire ? Knewest thou how in time Hector, even 
though dead, was doomed to be thy destruction ? Observe 
ye, by the gods I ask, the fate of these two men. Hector, 
having been fast bound with the vtiy girdle wherewith be 
was presented from Ajax^, by the steed-drawn car was ever 
racked and mangled until he breathed out his life : while 
Ajax, joossessing this, the gift of Hector, perished by its 
means through a fatal fall. And was it not a Fury that forged 
this cimeter, and Hades the other, that fierce artificer ? I then 
would say, that the gods devised both this and every thing 
else for ever to mankind. But to whomsoever in opinion this 
is not pleasing, let him fondly cling to other, and me to this. 

Ch. Extend no length of speech, but bethink thee how 
thou wilt commit to the tomb thy brother, and what thou 
presently wilt parley. For I descry a foeman, and haply he 
may, as would a villain, come forth to laugh at our misfor- 
tunes. 

Teu. But what man of the army is it that thou seest ? 

Ch. Menelaus,for whom, in fact, we undertook this voyage. 

Text. I see him, for, near as he is, he is not hard to recog- 
nize*. 



1 The translators failed to perceive that the words -Trpog ovUv tig tpiv 
BvfJiovfitvoQ refer to the general character of Telamon, and not to the 
present instance: for surely anger for the death of Ajax would not be Trpog 
obdkv\ Brunck rightly rendered it: " levissimam quamque ob causain 
ad jurgia irritabilis." B. 

^ a'loXog probably refers to the flashing streaks of light and shade seen 
on a well-polished blade. See Wunder on v. 147. B. 

^ This is n.ot found in Homer's account. 

* Probably by his haughty air and step. 

'Tio he, I ken the manner of his gait, 



1047—1075. AJAX. 273 

Menelaus. Ho thou ! to thee I speak. See thou aid not 
in burying with thine hands this corpse, but leave it as it is. 

Teu. For what purpose hast thou spent thus much in 
words ? 

Men, As my pleasure, and his w^ho sways the host. 

Teu. Wilt thou not then say what cause alleging r 

Men. Because that^, haying hoped we should bring him 
from home both friend and ally to Greeks, we have, on enquiiy, 
found him out to be more hostile than the Phrygians ; who 
having plotted destruction to the whole army at once, went 
forth armed by night against it to subdue it with his spear. 
And had not some god baffled this his attempt, we had laiii 
victims to the very fate himself hath obtained, murdered by a 
death most ignominious, while he would have lived. But god 
now hath wrought the change, that his violence should fall on 
the sheep and flocks. AMierefore there lives not the man of 
so much power as to entomb his body in the grave ; but cast 
out on the pale sand, he shall become food for the birds that 
coast along the brine. And therefore assume thou no fierce 
indignation ; for although we could not master him alive, at 
all events we will rule him dead, although thou be unwilling, 
perforce chastening him with our hands. For there is no 
instance in which, while he lived, he was ever willing to attend 
to my words ; and yet it is the proof of a bad man, that he, a 
private citizen, should in nothing deign to listen to those who 
are set over him. For never^, neither in a state could laws 
be rightly carried on, where fear has not been established, nor 
sm-ely could an army endure a commander with submission 

He rises on the toe ; that spirit of his 
In aspiration lifts him from the earth, 

Troilus and Cressida, act iv. sc. 5. 
^ This is in accordance with Aristotle's rule, who, in his enumeration of 
those towards whom anger is felt, mentions friends before enemies, as the 
injury, being unexpected, is the greater. Rhet. B.ll. c. ii. 

^ in Troilus and Cressida the speech of Ulysses in council enlarges this 
sentiment beautifully; the whole is too long for insertion, but parts of it 
seem almost paraphrased- — 

Take but degree away, untune that string, 
And, hark, what discord foUows ! * * 

Force should be right, or rather, right and wrong 
(Between whose endless jar justice resides) 
Should lose their names, and so should justice too. 

T 



274 AJAX. 1076—1108. 

any longer, having no barrier of respect and shame. But an 
individual, though he be large of person, it behoves to think 
that he may hereafter fall, though by a puny ill^ For to 
whom both fear and the sense of honour attach, that man be 
sure carries with him his safety ; but where it is allowed him 
to be insolent and do whate'er he pleases, think that at some 
future time this state, though it sped before a favouring gale, 
will sink to the bottom. But let me ever be fixed in a whole- 
some awe'', and let me not think that after doing what I please, 
I shall not pay back in turn what pains me. Alternately this 
comes upon us. Before now, this man was a fiery insolent; 
now I in turn am high-minded, and command thee not to 
bury him, lest that by burying him thyself sink into the 
tomb. 

Ch. Menelaus, do not, having set forth wise sentiments, 
become in consequence thyself an insulter of the dead. 

Text. Never again, my friends, could I wonder at a man, 
who, being nothing by birth, consequently errs, when they 
who fancy they are born of a noble family, err in their speech 
with words such as these. Come, tell me again from the 
beginning, canst thou say thou didst take and bring this man 
hither as an ally to the Greeks. Did not he himself sail out 
as his own master ? Wherein art thou his commander? and 
wherein is it allowed thee to sway the people that he led forth 
from home? Thou earnest as prince of Sparta, and not as 
commanding us ; nor is there where the law of rule was laid 
down for thee to order him, any more than he thee. Thou 
earnest hither under the command of others, not general 
of the whole army, that thou shouldst ever lord it over Ajax. 
No, rule those whom thou dost rule, and in haughty terms 
chastise them : but my brother here, whether thou forbid, or 

^ "Tihil est tam firmum, cui non periculum sit etiam ab invalido." 
This is somewhat proverbial, TheocrituSj iv. 55. ooaixov tan to rvjiyia 
Kcd ak'iKov dv^ga dafidadn. B. 

2 " This is said by Menelaus in perfect conformity with the Spartan 
institutions ; which nation built a small temple to Fear close by the throne 
of the Ephori." Lobeck. Yet Pericles, in his funeral oration, has 
claimed it pre-eminently for his countrymen. V. Thuc. II. 37. Tr. — 
Compare Lucan's character of Caesar, Phars. III. 80. " Non ilium 
Isetis vadentem csetibus urbes, Sed tacitse videre metu, non constitit us- 
quam Obvia turba duci : gaudet tamen esse timori Tam magno populis, et 
se non mallet amari." B. 



1109—1127. AJAX. 275 

the other chieftain, will I duly commit to the tomb, fearless 
of thy mouthing. Since in no wise for thy wife's sake did he 
campaign, like adventurers ever busy, but for his oath's^, 
whereby he was bound, and not for thee, since he valued not 
the worthless. Wherefore come and bring with thee hither 
more heralds, and the general : but for thy rant I would not 
turn me, so long as thou shalt be such as thou art. 

Ch. Nay, on the other hand, I like not such speeches in 
misfortune ; for harsh reproofs, mark me, though they be but 
too just, are biting. 

Men. Methinks our archer thinks not little of himself*. 

Teu. No, for 'twas no sordid art I acquired. 

Men. Thou wouldst be likely to boast somewhat largely, 
couldst thou bear a shield. 

Teu. Even unarmed I were a match for thee at any rate, 
though mailed^. 

Men. How bold a spirit this that thy tongue nurtures! 

Text. Yes, in a just cause it is allowable to be high- 
spirited. 

Men. What, is it just that he should prosper, having slain 
me? 

Text. Having slain thee ! Thou hast spoken a wonder in- 
deed, if thou though dead livest. 



*o' 



1 The story is, that Tyndarus, father of Helen, bound all her suitors by 
strict oaths to maintain the cause of him whom she should choose as her 
husband, and resist or revenge any attempt to carry her off. Thucydides, 
however, gives a different opinion in his first book, and considers Aga- 
memnon to have exercised a feudal authority over the other chiefs that 
composed the Grecian force. Tr. — The Schol. interprets oi ir. tt. 7r\e^<i, 
01 cpiXoKivdwoi, 01 TrXripeig riov kivSuvlov Xsyei de tovq jXicyGopopovg. B. 

2 The archers were reckoned among the -.piXoL or light-armed troops of 
the Greeks, and accounted inferior to the Hophtes. Homer (II. 8.) men- 
tions the manner of Teucer's fighting, and his retiring behind his brother's 
shield for protection after the discharge of his arrows. For an example 
of the contempt in which bowmen were held, Musgrave refers to a dispute 
of Lycus in Euripides, Here. Fur. 158. The Lysistrata and Acharnians 
of Aristophanes likewise show their low estimation of archers and archery 
at Athens. 

^ Thrice is be arm'd that hath his quarrel just; 

And he but naked, thougli lock'd \ip in steel, 
"Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 

Second Part of Henry VI., act 3, sc 2, 
T 2 



276 AJAX. 1123—1154. 

Men. I ao, for heaven rescues me, but as far as he is con- 
cerned I am no more. 

Teu. Having by the gods been saved, do not now disho- 
nour the gods. 

Men. What, should I impugn the divine laws? 

Teu. Yes, if thou art here to forbid the burial of the 
dead. 

Men. Mine own enemies at least for myself I do ; for it is 
not fitting. 

Teu. What, did Ajax ever confront thee as a foe? 

Men. I hated him who hated me ; thou knewest this thy- 
self. 

Teu. Ay, for thou wast found of him a fraudulent voter. 

Men. That slip was made by the judges, not me, 

Teu. Many a crime mightest thou wickedly and fraud- 
fully commit in secret. 

Men. These words are coming on to annoyance for some 
one. 

Teu. No more so methinks than we shall annoy. 

Men. One thing I will tell thee. This fellow must not be 
entombed. 

Teu. And do thou in return hear^ ; this man shall presently 
be buried. 

Men. Once ere now saw I a man daring in tongue, urging 
on his crew to sail in stormy weather, in whom thou mightest 
not have found the power of speech when by the peril of the 
storm he was encompassed ; no, hidden under his cloak he 
gave himself up for any one of the seamen that would to 
trample on. And so also thee and thine unbridled tongue 
a mighty storm, bursting forth from a little cloud, might 
haply put down in thy tedious clamour. 

Teu. And I too have beheld a man filled with folly, who 
was insulting the calamities of his neighbours. And then one 
like to me in person, and in temper similar, having looked 
upon him, spake words such as these: "Man, treat not the 

^ Here Brunck defends the future middle as used in an active sense ; 
but Lobeck has produced instances from Sophocles himself, ((Ed. Tyr. 
544.) and other approved Attic writers. (Xen. Anab. II. 5.) which seems 
to favour the substitution of oi) avraKovaov 'iv too . Tr. — The future 
perfect is -often used to imply great determination or earnestness on the 
part ot the speaker. B. 



1154—1390. A J AX. 2T7 

dead with injury, for if thou wilt do so, know thou shalt be 
punished." Thus, being by, did he admonish that kickless 
wight. But mark, I see him ; and he can be, to my thinking, 
none else than thou. Have I spoken riddles? 

Meist. I will be gone. For base were it, if any one were 
to hear such a thing, for one who can use force to punish by 
M-ords. 

'J'eu. Crawl hence now, for in me too is it most base to 
listen to a vain fellow prating paltry words. 

Ch. The conflict of a mighty quarrel will ensue. But 
speeding, Teucer, as best thou canst, be quick to look out a 
hollow grave for Ajax^, where he shall possess his mouldering 
sepulchre by mortals ne'er' forgotten. 

Teu. And in truth, at the very nick of time, here at hand 
come the wife and child of this my brother, to deck out the 
tomb of the unfortunate dead. Come hither, my boy, and 
standing near, as a suppliant, touch thy father that begot 
thee. And sit thou his petitioner, holding in thy hands my 
hair^, and hers here, and thine own the third, a suppliant's 
store. But if any one from the army would pluck thee for- 
cibly from this corpse, be the villain, as a villain should, an 
unburied outcast from his country, mowed down root and 
branch with all his race, even thus as I cut this lock of hair. 
Take it, my child, and keep it, and see that none move thee, 
but having fallen on the body cling fast. And do not ye 
stand close by him as women instead of men, but protect him 
until I come, having provided for the burial of this man 
though none permit. 

Ch. What number of much- wandering years being the last 
\Ndll ever cease, [a number] ever bringing upon me a ceaseless 
distress of spear-ravening toils through wide^ Troy, the dire 

^ Sophocles has said nothing of the body of Ajax being burnt, that being 
a privilege denied to him ou the authority of Calchas, who declared the 
holy element of fire to be polluted by consuming therein the remains of 
suicides. Philostratus in Heroicis. 

- The custom of consecrating their hair was very common among the 
ancients ; and, in Euripides, we find Electra condemning Helen for sparing 
her locks. Orestes, 1. 128. So also Achilles, at the funeral of Patroclus, 
cuts off the hair he had vowed to his native river Spercheius; and his 
example was followed, out of respect to the dead, by the other Greeks. 
II. XXIII. 135. 

2 There is some doubt about £vpu)dr]Q. Some take it as equivalent to 



278 AJAX. 1191—1233. 

reproach of Greeks ? Would that that man had first entered 
the boundless aether, or Hades, the dwellin«j^ of all, who showed 
the Greeks the common use in war of hateful arms. Ah, 
toils, of toils the parent ! For he v/as man's ruin*. He hath 
appointed to company with me neither the joy of chaplets, 
nor of deep goblets, nor the dulcet harmony of flutes, the 
wretch, nor to linger o'er nightly delights ; no, from love, from 
love, alas, he has debarred me. And thus uncared-for I am 
lying, my hair continually drenched with fast-falling dews^, 
memorials of doleful Troy. And truly up to this time the 
valiant Ajax was my bulwark from nightly terror, and from the 
arrow ; but now he is undone by a hateful doom ; what delight, 
then, what pleasure will ever again attend me ? could I 
be where the woody foreland washed by the wave, beetles o'er 
the main, 'neath Sunium's lofty plain, that I might accost the 
sacred Athens^. 

Teu. Truly I hurried back, having seen the commander 
Agamemnon hastening hither to us; and he evidently is about 
to let loose his evil tongue on me. 

Aga-Memnox. They tell me thou darest vaunt against us 
thy fierce invectives thus with impunity; thee, to thee, son of 
the captured slave, I speak. Truly hadst thou been bom of 
a noble mother, thou wouldst have boasted loftily, and walked 
on tiptoe, when, thyself a nothing*, for one that is nothing 
thou hast stood up against us. On oath too hast thou afEi'med 

tvpujHQ, "dank" (Cf. Horn. Od. X., 512. Hesiod Theog. 731.) but 
others like evpvg, as Homer's Tpoiijv ivoilav or tvpvayviav. As I can- 
not see how the former sense could well be applied to Troy, I have 
adopted the other. B. 

^ Still finer are the reflections of Henry the Sixth upon the evils of vrar, 
as the causes which produce them are more dreadful, and truly warrant 
his exclaiming, " Woe upon woe, grief more than common grief!" 

2 Similar to this is the complaint of the herald in the Agamemnon of 
^scliylus. 

2 It was probably from these lines that Lord Byron took the hint for the 
last stanza of his ode to the Greek isles : — 

Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, 

Where nothing, save the waves and I, 
May hear our mutual murmurs weep, — 
There, swan-like, let me sing and die. 
* Shamest thou not, knowing whence thou art extraught. 

To let thy tongue detect thy base-born heart? 

Third Part of Henry VI., act 2, sc. 2. 



1233—1263. AJax. 279 

that we have come neither generals nor admirals of the Greeks 
or of thee; no, as thou sayest, Ajax sailed his own com- 
mander. Are not these great insults to hear from slaves? 
In behalf of what manner of man hast thou clamoured thus 
haughtily? whither having marched, where made his stand, 
wJiere I did not? Have then the Greeks no men save him? 
Of bitter consequence methinks was the contest we proclaimed 
of late to the Greeks for Achilles* arms, if everywhere we are 
to be declai'cd villains by Teucer : and if it will never content 
you. not even when wor>ted. to acquiesce in what seemed fit 
to the majority of your judges, but ye will constantly either 
assail us somehow with reproaches, or hai-ass us with covert 
treason, you the vanquished party. Yet out of ways like 
these there never could arise the establislmient of any law. if 
we are to thi-ust out those who prevail justly, and bring the 
hindmost to the foremost rank : no, all this must we check. 
For 'tis not the stout, nor the broad-backed men that are 
most safe^; no, the men of good coimsel ever^-rvhere prevail. 
And the large-sided ox goes straight along the road guided by 
a whip, though small. And on thee I behold this medicine 
quickly stealing, unless thou get thee some imderstanding, 
thou who for a man now no more, but abeady a shadow, art 
confident in insolence and in tongue unbridled. Wilt thou 
never be humble? wilt thou not, having learnt what by birth 
thou art-, bring hither some one else of gentle blood, who in 
thy stead shall speak to us thy words? for I can no longer 
imderstand while thou speakest, since I am not acquainted 
with the barbarians* tongue''. 

^ L'lysses, iu Shakspeare, thus remarks on the false pride of Ajax and 
Achilles : — 

So that the ram, that batters down the wall. 
For the great swing and rudeness of his poise. 
They place before the hand that made the engine. 
Or those that with the fineness of their souls. 
By reason guide his execution. 

Tioilus and Cressida, act 1. sc. 3. 
- Satis contumeliose haec ab Agamemnone profenintur, Servi enim, 
qualem Teucrum traducit, non poterant Athenis in concione causam 
dicere. Conf. Ter. Phorm. 2. 1. 62. WesseUng. 

3 Agamemnon sneers at Teucer for his descent from a foreign mother; 
wherein Sophocles appears rather to have consulted the manners and pre- 
judices of his own age than that which he is describing. Not unlike this 
taunt is Hotspur's observation to Glendower : — 



280 AJAX. 12G4— 1296. 

Ch. Oh that ye had both of you the sense to be temperate, 
for than this I have nothing better to advise you. 

Teu. Alas! how speedily does all grateful memory of the 
dead fade away among mankind, and is found to have de- 
serted him : if at least this man no longer, not even in tri- 
fling matters, Ajax, remembers thee, for whom thou many a 
time didst toil with the spear, exposing thy life ! But all this 
is now past and gone, throvATi by in scorn. O thou that hast 
just uttered words many and profitless, rememberest thou no 
longer aught, when Ajax here once came and alone dehvered 
you, pent up within your barriersS already as nothing in the 
rout of battle ; when fire was blazing around the ships, even 
then on the topmast benches of the seamen ; and Hector, past 
the trenches, was leaping high upon the naval hulks ! Who 
repelled all this? Was it not he that did it? — he, Avho, thou 
sayest, nowhere even set foot to foot ? What ! were not these 
justly his deeds in your behalf? And when again he singly, 
against Hector single-handed, by lot and not by command 
selected, went forth to cope with him; having deposited in 
the midst no clod of clammy earth^, his skulking lot, but one 
that was sure the fi.rst to bound with light spring from the 
crested helmet ! He it was performed these deeds ; and with 
him at his side, I, the slave, the oflfepring of a barbaric mo- 
ther. Wretch! whither looking, canst thou prate of this? 
Knowest thou not that the father that begot thy father, Pelops 
of old, was a Phrygian barbarian ; and Atreus, who in turn 
begat thee, was the most impious of men, who set before his 
brother a repast of his own children ? And thou thyself wert 
born of a Cretan mother', with whom the father that begot 

Who shall say me nay .-* 
Glex. "Why, that will I. 
Hot. Let me not understand you then, 

Speak it in Welsh. 

First Part of Henry IV., act 3. sc. 1. 

1 See Homer. II. 12, for the account of Ajax' repulse of Hector; and in 
the 14th book we find a disgraceful flight by night proposed by Agamem- 
non, but objected to by Ulysses. 

2 This is an anachronism, and alludes to the deceit practised by Cres- 
phontes in furtherance of his gaining Messenia to his share in the division 
of Peloponnesus by the Heraclidfe. Apollod. Q. 8. Pausan. IV. 3. 

3 xiie term " Cretan," from the days of Plato (vid. Schol. ad Aristoph. 
Aw. Tov [iaivofxevoVf rov Kprjra, rbv fioyig "Attikcv) to those of St. 



1297—1325. A.TAX 281 

her having taken a strange seducer, cast her away a prey to 
dumb fishes. And dost thou, being such, reproach with their 
family such as I am? I that am by birth the son of Telamon, 
who having gained the first j^rize of valour in the host, takes 
as the partner of his bed my mother, a princess by birth, 
child of Laomedon. Her, a selected present, the son of Alc- 
mena gave him. And can 1, thus the most excellent off- 
spring of two the most excelling, disgrace my kindred by 
blood, whom, prostrate in woes like these, thou spurnest forth 
unburied, nor blushed for thy words? Be well assured then 
of this, that if ye shall cast forth anywhere this body, ye 
shall with it cast out- us three^ lyi^o ^* i^^ ^^^® '■> since it is for 
my honour, labouring in A.jax' behalf, to die gloriously, rather 
than for thy wife's sake, or, I tell thee, thy brother's. Then 
look not to my situation only, but to thine own; since if 
tho\i shalt do me aught of harm, thou wilt one day wish thou 
hadst been a coward rather than bold against me. 

Ch. Prince Ulysses, know thou hast come in season, if 
thou art here not to embroil, but to join in loosing'^ [the 
quarrell. 

Uii. What is it, friends ? for from afar I heard the clamour 
of the AtridaB over this valiant corpse. 

Ag. Yes ; for are we not hearing the most opprobrious 
words, king Ulysses, from this fellow here, even now ? 

Uii. Of what sort ? for I can grant indulgence to the man 
who hears bad words, with ill words to match them. 

Ag. He hath heard his shame, for shamefully he treated me. 

Ul. Why, what hath he done to thee, that thou hast 
injury? 

Paul, appears to have been a term of more than common reproach. Lyco- 
phron calls Menelaus a Half-Cretan, from his mother Aerope, whom her 
father having detected in an intrigue with a domestic, gave to Nauplius, 
with injunctions to throw her overboard out at sea ; but he disobeyed the 
mandate, and betrothed her to Plisthenes, son of Atreus. For Agamem- 
non and Menelaus are said to have been the grandchildren of Atreus, and 
not, as commonly supposed, his sons, although considered and treated as 
such by him. Tr. — On this contempt of the Cretans, see the Comm. on 
Callimach. in Jov. 8. B. 

^ Himself, Tecmessa, and Eurysaces : for what the scholiast says of the 
words being a threat, and having reference to the Atridae, is too far-fetched ; 
nor were the latter fallen down by Ajax' side, which he had instmcted 
Eurysaces to do. 

2 ^iq belongs to ^vvd\p(jjv only. See Wunder. B. 



282 AJAX. 1326—1353. 

Ag. He denies that he will leave this dead body destitute 
of burial, but will inter it in spite of me. 

Ul. Is it then allowed a friend, having spoken the truth, 
to be no less thy friend than before* } 

Ag. Say on; — else were I not in my right mind ; since I 
account thee l^e greatest friend of the Greeks. 

Ul. Listen now. By the gods I implore, have not the 
heart thus pitilessly to cast out unburied this Ajax, and let 
not violence by any means prevail on thee so far to hate him 
as to trample on justice. For to me also he once was of all 
the army the bitterest foe, from the time I became master of 
Achilles' arms ; and yet, though such he was to me, I would 
not so far dishonour him as not to say that he, and no other, 
was the bravest of all the Greeks I have looked on, as many 
of us as came to Troy, except Achilles ; and therefore he 
may not, in justice at least, be disgraced by thee. For thou 
wouldst not injure him at all, but the laws of the gods : nor 
is it just to wrong the brave man, if he be dead, although 
thou chance to hate him. 

Ag. Dost thou, Ulysses, thus in behalf of this man contend 
with me ? 

Ul. I do. I hated him, whilst. to hate was honourable. 

Ag. What, and oughtest thou not also to insult him 
dead .^ 

Ul. Joy not, son of Atreus, over vantages not honour- 
able. 

Ag. Look thou, for a despot to be religions is no easy 
matter*. 

Ul. But it is to pay respect to friends, who advise well. 

Ag. The virtuous man should obey those in office. 

Ul. Have done'. Thou conquerest, believe me, in yielding 
to thy friends. 



1 Literally *'to pull together with thee.'' 

2 "The poet seems to have inserted this sentiment with a view rather to 
the gratification of his audience than to the consistency of the character." 
Hermann — who takes evcefiuv apparently as transitive, against the opinion 
of Valcknaer and others. There seems no reason to suppose that Sophocles 
alluded to Cleon here. With better reason apparently Hermann thinks 
that demagogue glanced at in lines 1338 and 1340, for his conduct towards 
the Lesbians, etc. 

' The word Travaai here offends some of the commentators as indicative 



1354—1376. AJAX. 283 

Ag. Remember to what kind of man thou grantest this 
favour. 

Ul. This man was mine enemy, yet sometime noble. 

Ag. What canst thou possibly mean to do ? Dost thou 
thus respect the corpse of a foe ? 

Ul. Yes ; for his valour far transcends my hatred. 

Ag. Yet men like these are in the world's eye dotards. 

Ul. Nay, surely there are many now friends, but after- 
wards enemies. 

Ag. Dost thou then approve of making such as these thy 
friends ? 

Ul. I am not wont to approve of an obdurate spirit. 

Ag. This day ^^'ilt thou demonstrate us to be cowards. 

Ul. Nay, rather to all the Greeks as men of justice. 

Ag. Dost thou then desire me to suJffer them bury the 
corpse ? 

Ul. I do ; for I myself also shall come to this. 

Ag. How every man labours all things suitably to him- 
self^! 

Ul. Yes ; for whom is it more reasonable I should labour 
than for myself ? 

Ag. Shall not this then be called thy act, not mine ? 

Ul. As thou shalt do it, shalt thou everywhere be es- 
teemed meritorious. 

Ag. Nay then, be well assured of this at least, that I would 
bestow on thee a greater boon than this ; but that man, 
M-hether here or there, will still be by me most hated : but 
it is allowed thee to act as is requisite. 

Ch. Whoever, Ulysses, denies that thou art natm-ally wise 
of counsel, being such as thou art, is a fool. 

Ul. However to Teucer I declare that from this time forth 



of too little respect on the part of Ulysses to his commander. Hence 
Markland would read ndaaig, Omnibus suffragiis, and Musgrave XiXtvati 
KpoLTiffToVj optime navigabis; but these emendations are by no rae^ns 
requisite. V. (Ed. Tyr. 630. Eur. And. 692. Tliis sentiment is ex- 
plained by Thucydides, L. 4. c. 20, " For to those who are easily induced 
to make concessions, men are naturally inclined to yield in their turn, and 
that with pleasure." 

^ Lobeck considers this as ironical in Agamemnon, who would insinuate 
that the present magnanimity of Ulysses was inconsistent with his cha- 
racter. 



284 AJaX. 1377—1407. 

I am as mucli his friend as ere now I was his foe^ ; and I 
Mdsh to help bury this dead body here, to share the labour, 
and omit nothing of all that is man's duty to care for in hon- 
our of the noblest of mankind. 

Teu. Most excellent Ulysses ! 'tis mine to give thee all 
manner of commendation in words, and thou hast much belied 
my expectation ; for being of Greeks the man most hostile to 
this my brother, thou alone hast stood by him with thy exer- 
tions, nor hast had the heart here alive greatly to insult him 
dead, as that our mad-stricken general, coming himself and 
his brother also, were desirous to have cast him out insulted 
without sepulture. Wherefore may the sire that rules this 
Olympus, and mindful Erinnys, and Justice accomplishing 
her end, bring the wretches to a wretched doom, even as they 
were desirous unworthily and in contemptuous sort to cast out 
Ajax. But, O seed of Laertes, thine aged sire, I dread to 
allow of thy having a hand in this funeral, lest this I do dis- 
pleasing to the dead'^, but in all else act with me ; and if thou 
wilt that any one of the army attend him forth, I shall not 
feel hurt at it. But for all the rest myself will take order ; 
and be thou assured that in my esteem thou art a worthy 
man. 

Ul. Nay, I could indeed have wished it ; but if it be not 
pleasing to thee that I should do this, I will be gone, ac- 
quiescing in thy views. 

Teu. Enough ; for already hath much time elapsed ; but 
do some of you speed with your hands the hollow grave, and 
others set on the fire the high-standing tripod, of use for the 
holy ablutions; and let one troop of men bring forth from the 

^ Thus Aufidius over the dead body of Coriolanus, whom he had slain : 
My rage is gone. 
And I am struck with sorrow. — Take him up, — 
Help three of the chiefest soldiers ; I'll be one. 

CorioL, act 4. sc. 5. 
2 The ancients were very scrupulous in their respect to the manes of the 
dead. Hence Philostratus, speaking of these very events, has the follow- 
ing passage: " He (Ulysses) having brought the armour of Achilles to 
Ajax when laid out for interment, and having burst into tears, ' There, be 
thou buried,' said he, ' in the arms thou didst love so well ; and be thine 
the victory in them, nor let thy spirit feel aught of resentment.' Where- 
upon, the Greeks applauding Ulysses, Teucer joined in their praises of him, 
but declined the gift of the armour, on the plea that what caused his death 
was unfit to grace his burial. Heroicc. C. II. 3. 



1408—1419. AJAX. 2So 

tent his mailed garniture. But do thou, child, with affection 
grasping thy father as well as thou hast strength to, ease this 
his side with me ; for yet do the warm gashes exhale a black 
gore. But come every one that says he is here as a friend, 
let him hm-ry, let him go, toiling for this hero, in all things 
good, and for none among mankind more excellent than 
Ajax^ 

Ch. How many things is it man's by seeing to know ! but 
ere he have seen, there is no prophet of the future, as to what 
it will bring to pass. 

^ The words 'Aiavrog, or 'rp', tote i^'jjvCj, are thrown out by Dindoif 
and Wuuder. B. 



1—14 



PHILOCTETES. 



The sufferings of Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos, whither he had 
been brought by Ulysses, in obedience to the oracular advice of Helenus, 
and his being led away from thence by Ulysses in company with Neo- 
ptolemus^ B. 



DRAMATIS PERSONiE. 



Ulysses. 

Neoptolemus. 

Chorus. 



Philoctetes. 

Spy as a Merchant. 

Hercules. 



Ulysses. This is the shore of the wave-encircled land of 
Lemnos, untrodden by man, and uninhabited, where, O thou 
reared from a sire the mightiest of Greeks, Neoptolemus, thou 
son of Achilles, I once set on shore, having been appointed 
to do this by the princes, the son of Poias the Melian^, run- 
ning at the foot with a corroding disease, when it was not 
possible for us to set our hand either to libation^ or sacrifice 
unmolested, but continually did he fill the whole camp with 
wild and ill-omened cries, shrieking and groaning. Yet what 
need is there to speak of this ? For 'tis no season for length 
of words to us, lest he learn that I am come, and I waste 
our whole artifice, by which I expect I presently shall ensnare 

1 I must observe that this play, from the evidently disturbed arrangement 
of the dialogue, and the many verbal corruptions with which it is replete, 
is one of the most difficult to deal with. This will perhaps serve as an 
apology for the greater attention to critical details, than in the previous 
plays. B. 

" Philoctetes is said by some to have accompanied the Argonautic expe- 
dition, and was certainly the armour-bearer and particular friend of Her- 
cules ; which must either bring the dates of the Argonautic voyage and 
Trojan war nearer each other than they are generally placed, or present 
him a very aged candidate for the hand of Helen. 

^ Distinctly mentioned, because libations were made on all the petty 
affairs of life, at the reception of a stranger, or on going to bed ; sacrifices, 
on account of their expense, only on great occasions. 



15—36, PHILOCTETES. - 287 

him. But now it is thy business to serve me in the rest, and 
to spy out where hereabouts is the cavern of double mouth, 
of such a nature as that there in cold weather is at hand a 
double place to sit in the sun, and in the summer the breeze 
wafts slumber through the vault hollowed throughout^ But 
a little way below, on the left, thou mightest haply see a pure 
fountain, if it yet be preserved. Which approaching silently, 
signify to me whether yet he keeps to this very same spot, 
or whether he happens to be elsewhere, that thou mayest 
hear, and I instruct thee in, the residue of my counsels, and 
the business in common may proceed by means of both. 

Neoptolemus. O king Ulysses, thou speakest of no dis- 
tant labour, since I fancy I perceive a cavern, such as thou 
hast mentioned. 

Ul. Above or below ? for I do not discern it. 

Ne. Here above us, and there is at least no noise'' of a 
footstep. 

Ul. See, whether he chance to be laid down to sleep. 

Ne. I see a dwelling-place empty and void of men. 

Ul. Is there not some home-made^ sustenance within ? 

Ne. At any rate there are trodden leaves, as if for some 
one who sleeps there. 

Ul. But is all else deserted, and nothing beneath the 
roof r 

Ne. There is a drinking- vessel all of wood, the workman- 
ship of some sorry craftsman*, and together with it these 
materials for lighting a fire*^. 

^ The difficulty here lies in the looseness of the expression, which would 
more simply have been, 'iva SnrXi] Trapeortv lvOdKT]cng, [elg'] fiev r)\iov 
tv ■<pvxii, [dg 5e ^] Trvof] TTs/iTrei ktX., i. e., " ubi duplex sit sessio, una 
quidem, hyemis tempore, solem versus, una vero, ubi sestate soporem 
inducat aura ;" yXiov is the genitive of place or reference. B. 

2 i. e., Neoptolemus hears no one stirring within. B. 

^ OiKOTToiog must here be taken passively, cibus domi paratus, as 
loXoiroiog avdyKt] in the Trachinise, dolor fraude comparatus. Tr. — 
Wunder takes it passively, but prefers the conjecture of Welcker (and 
Burges), Tpv(pi). B. 

"* It appears then that Ulysses had at least one point of superiority over 
the unfortunate man over whom he had exercised such rigour, that of 
being a better carpenter. See Odyss. XXIII. 

° "The materials in question were two flints (see v. 296), and some 
tinder, made of burnt rags, as appears from the words following: jcai 
TaiiTOi y' dXXa — 'pdfo/." Burges. B. 



288 PHILOCTETES. 37—05. 

Ul. This store that thou tellest me of is his. 

Ne. Alas, alas ! Here are besides these rags drying, full of 
Bome offensive matter from a sore. 

Uii. The man evidently is an inhabitant of these parts, 
and is somewhere not far off. For how should a lame man, 
diseased with a fatal malady,, of old standing, go out to any 
distance ? No, but either for food hath he gone forth on his 
way^, or if he knows of some pain-assuaging plant anywhere. 
Send, therefore, the man who is here to spy out^ that he 
may not light on me unobserved, since he had rather lay 
hands on me than all the other Greeks. 

Ne. Nay, he is both on his way thither, and the path shall 
be w^atched ; but do thou, if thou desirest aught, instruct me 
by thy next words. 

Ue. Son of Achilles, it becomes thee to act a brave part in 
the work for which thou hast come, not merely in thy person, 
but if thou shouldst hear aught new, whereof thou hast not 
heard before, to lend aid therein, since thou art here an 
assistant. 

Ne. What then dost thou bid me do ? 

XJe. It needs thou [consider] • how speaking thou shalt by 
thy words cajole the mind of Philoctetes. When he asks thee 
who and whence thou art, say, " the son of Achilles," (this 
must not be concealed,) "and that thou art sailing home- 
wards, having abandoned the naval armament of the Greeks, 
hating them with great hatred, for that having with suppli- 
cations fetched thee to come from thy home, possessing these 
only means of taking Troy, they thought thee not worthy of 
Achilles' arms, to give them thee when arrived and of right 
demanding them ; but on the contrary transferred them to 
Ulysses^,'" venting whatever abuse, the lowest of the low^, 

1 Suidas, quoted by Wuuder, voarog .... Karaxprj^yTiKuig i) dcpi^iQ 
dirb TOTTOv 8ig tottov. See Hermaun. B. 

2 A mute personage, who had accompanied them. B. 

3 The contest concerning the arms of Achilles was solely between Ajax 
and Ulysses ; we have no account that Neoptolemus laid claim to them.- 
As Philoctetes, however, had been absent during the whole afFair, Ulysses 
was at liberty to substitute Neoptolemus in the room of Ajax, especially as 
his being the son of Achilles naturally justified his pretensions to the arms 
of his father. The fiction was therefore probable. Franklin. 

^ Gioster, in his instructions to Buckingham to pave the way for his 
assumption of the crown, goa« even further than this, and commissions 



66—96.' PHILOCTETES. 289 

thou wilt against me. For in nothing of all this wilt thou 
pain me ; but if thou wilt not do this, thou wilt strike sorrow 
into all the Greeks. For if the bow and arrows of this man 
be not procured, it is not for thee to sack the Dardan^ plain. 
But that I have not and thou hast sure and safe communion 
with this man, learn of me. Thou hast sailed, bound by 
oath to none, nor on compulsion', nor on the first expedition : 
but none of these can be denied by me. So that, if while 
master of his weapons he shall discover me, I am undone, 
and shall involve thee in my ruin by being with thee. But 
this very point must be cunningly devised, that thou mayest 
be by stealth the possessor of the resistless arms. I am aware, 
O youth, that thou art not naturally inclined to utter such 
words, nor to contrive evil. But, for in sooth it is delightful 
to gain the possession of victory, dare it', but afterwards 
again will we show ourselves upright. Now however for the 
brief portion of a day resign thyself to me unto shamelessness, 
and then for after time be called the most reHgious of all 
men. 

Ne. Son of Laertes, the words which I grieve to hear, 
them I also abhor to practise. For my natm-e is to do no- 
thing with evil treachery, neither mine own, nor, as they say, 
my father's that begot me. But I am ready to carry off the 
man by violence, and not by craft ; for he will not with but 
one foot overpower so many as we are by force. Yet still, 
having been sent as thy coadjutor, I dread being called thy 
betrayer ; but, prince, I had rather fail acting nobly, than 
basely prevail. 

Ul. Son of a noble father, I too formerlv in youth pos- 



him to charge his (Gloster's) own mother with adultery. Rich. III. 
act 3. sc. 5. 

^ Dardauus was son to Jupiter by Electra, and the founder of the Tro- 
jan race. 

2 Such was Echepolus, Horn. II. XXIII. 293: 
Then ^leiielaus his Podargus brings. 
And the famed courser of the king of kings. 
Whom rich Echepolus, (more rich than brave,) 
To 'scape the war, to Agamemnon gave. Pope. 
^ It is not to be wondered at that Ulysses should recommend this con- 
duct to Neoptolemus, since at v. 1049, we find him glorying in it as his 
own system of action. 

U 



290 PHILOCTETES. 97—121^ 

sessed a slow tongue and active hand* ; but now having gone 
forth to the test, I see among mankind the tongue and not 
the deeds, bearing rule in every thing. 

Ne. What else then hast thou bid me, but to utter false- 
hood? 

Ul. I bid thee seize Philoctetes by stratagem. 

Nje. But what needs there take him by stratagem rather 
than persuasion ? 

Ul. Think not he will be persuaded : but by force thou 
couldst not take him. 

Ne. Hath he then confidence in his strength so for- 
midable ? 

Uii. He hath unerring arrows, that send death. 

Ne. What then, dare not one even approach him ? 

Ul. No, at least if he entrap him not by craft, as I advise. 

Ne. And dost thou not then hold it base to utter false- 
hoods ? 

Ul. No, at least if the lie brings safety. 

Ne. With what face then shall one dare to say all this ? 

Ul. When thou doest aught for advantage, it suits not to 
recoil. 

Ne. But what advantage to me is his going to Troy: 

Ul. These weapons alone Mali take Troy. 

Ne, What, am not I then the destined destroyer, as ye 
declared ? 

Ul. Neither couldst thou be without them, nor they with- 
out thee. 

Ne. Then must they be our prize, if indeed it be so. 

Ul. Truly, if thou do this, thou wilt get thyself two 
rewards. 

Ne. Of what sort? for having learnt I would not refuse the 
doing it. 

Ul. Thou wouldest be called at once wise and good. 

Ne. Be it so, I will do it, having laid aside all shame. 

Ul. Dost thou then remember all that I have advised thee ? 



* Such is Shakspeare's description of Troilus: — 

The youngest son of Priam, a true knight, 
Not yet mature, yet matchless: firm of word: 
Speaking in deeds, but deedless in his tongue. 

Troilus and Cressida, act 4. so. 5. 



122—147. PniLOCTETES. 291 

Ne. Be assured I do, now that I have once consented^ 

Ul. Do thou then abiding here receive him; but I will be 
gone, lest being present I be discovered, and I will send the 
spy* back again to the ship. And hither again, if ye seem to 
me to loiter at all in time, I will send out this same man, hav- 
ing tricked him out in appearance after the manner of a ship's 
master, that he may not be recognized, from whom, my son, 
speaking cunningly^, gather thou of his words from time to 
time whatever may profit us. But I will go to the vessel, 
committing all this to thee; and may attendant Mercury, 
patron of deceit*, be our guide, and Victory Minerva^, patro- 
ness of cities, who ever protects me. 

Chorus. WTiat, what, my prince, must I, in a strange 
land a stranger, hide, or what say to the suspicious man ? tell 
me. For contrivance surpasses other contrivance*, as does 
judgment, in him by whomsoever the divine sceptre of Jove 
is swayed. And to thee, my son, this full power from olden 
time hath come : wherefore declare to me' in what it is need- 
ful for me to do thee service. 

Ne. Now, for haply thou desirest to look on the spot in a 
region so remote, wherein he lies, look boldly ; but when the 
dread wayfarer shall come, emerging from these his haunts®, 

1 Hermann praises here the art of the poet, in making Neoptolemus 
shrink in indignation with himself from again hearing advice of the base- 
ness of which he is conscious. 

2 Not the person mentioned v. 45, but a servant whom Ulysses had 
with him. Herm. Tr. — Why not the same .-^ See Wunder. B. 

^ UoitciXioQ, varie, versute. Thus Livy has " varie agere ;" and in 
Sallust the mind of Cataline is called "varius." Cat. c. 5. 

^ Mercury had many appellations of this kind, which are humorously 
mentioned towards the close of the Piutus of Aristophanes. 

^ Minerva is said to have been worshipped in her temple on the Acro- 
polis under this name. Her second title was derived from her being the 
foundress of Athens, and appears therefore in the mouth of the speaker 
somewhat misplaced. Her protection of Ulysses is well known : v. Ajax, 
L. 1. II. X. 279. 

^ (70(p'i(}. S' av ootp'iav 

TrapafjLtL-^tiev dvrjp. CEd. Tyr. v. 503. 

' To /ioi tweirs, pro Slo. tovto elliptice. Vid. Horn. II. III. v. 176. 
VII. v. 239. XVII. V. 404. Barby. 

^ To the translation as now given, Hermann considers it no objection 
that the Chorus subsequently asks whether Philoctetes be in or out of 
doors, inasmuch as it was natural for them in such a place to suspect him 
of lurking somewhere near. 

U2 



292' 1»HIL0CTETES. 148—190. 

do thou, ever at my beck^ endeavour to be of piesent 
seiTice. 

Ch. Thou speakest, O prince, of a care by me long since 
cared for, to watch thine eye especially for thy occasion. But 
now tell me in what kind of dwelling he is the settled inha- 
bitant, and what place he tenants ; for this it were not inop- 
portune for me to learn, lest he having approached from any 
quarter escape my notice. What spot, or what abode is his ; 
What path takes he ? within his dwelling, or without^ r 

Ne. This habitation with double entrance of the rocky laii* 
that thou seest, is his. 

Ch. And where is the wretched man himself away from it? 

Ne. It is clear to me at least that in want of food he is 
furrowing his tread^ hither, somewhere near ; for report says 
that he exercises this mode of sustenance, sad sadly* shooting 
beasts with winged arrows, nor does he procure him any 
healer of his woes. 

Ch. I truly pity him, that, no mortal caring for him, nor 
having any companion eye, he wretched, ever solitary, sickens 
with a fierce disease, and helplessly languishes" in every want 
that arises to him. How, how does the hapless man ever 
support it ? toiling hands of mortals ! O luckless races of 
men, to whom destiny is untoward ! He perchance being in- 
ferior to none, though of the noblest houses, destitute of all in 
life, lies alone apart from others, with the dappled or the 
shaggy beasts, pitiable both in pain and hunger, possessed of 
an incurable toil :, while Echo with her babbling tongue heard 
afar is borne along by his bitter shrieks*. 

^ Hermann thinks Trpbg x*tp« to be the same with the Latin phrase ad 
manum, i. e., uistatim uti te passim : and renders (pat-SptoTrbv Trori x*'P« 
from the Agamemnon, qui prtesto est hilari vulhi ad onmia qfficia a 
version few admirers of -^schylus wiU be incUned to adopt. 
' 2 These reiterated questions well denote the dread of the Chorus, after 
they have been already informed by their lord himself^ (v. 31-) that Phi- 
loctetes is not within. 

^ byfitvuv <jri(3ov est viam deinceps prosequi, simiUtudine a metentibus 
Tepetita. Herm. Tr.— Cf. Xenoph. Cyr. II. 4. 40. B. 

^ (XTvyepbv arvyepojg. Herm. Tr. — Wunder adopts Brunck's afivye- 
pbv afivytpCJg, a word nowhere used in Tragedy. B. 

° 'AXi»£i, dSruxovu, Schol., which latter word is used in the New Testa- 
ment to express the vehemence of our Saviour's agony. 

^ The mockery of Echo is finely imagined here, and may almost bear a 



.191—218. PHILOCTETES. 293 

Ne. Nojp of these things is to me surprising, for they are 
heaven-sent, if at least I have aught of judgment. And those 
sufferings have descended on him from cruel-minded Chryse^ ; 
and all that he now labours under deprived of tending friends 
cannot but be by the province of the gods, that he should not 
aim the deities' invincible weapons'^ against Troy ere the time 
should elapse, at which 'tis said by these she must be over- 
come. 

Cii. Be silent, my son. 

Nb. What's this ? 

Ch. a noise arose natural to man, as of some one in pain, 
somewhere hereabouts; or there. The voice strikes, aye, 
strikes upon me distinctly, of some one crawling on his path 
with much ado, nor does the deep utterance of a worn-out 
spirit from afar escape me, for over -loudly it resounds. 

Ch. Take, my son 

Nb. Tell me what. 

Ch. thoughl^ anew. The man is not out of his abode, 

but in the place, not trolling the music of the reed-pipe, as a 
rural shepherd, but either somewhere stumbling, for violent 
pain3 he shrieks his far-echoing cry, or destroying our vessel's 
inhospitable station ; for dreadful is his outcry. 

comparison with the sublime passage from an Eastern tale which Lord 
Byron has quoted in his notes to the Bride of Abydos, n. 42. The order 
of the words according to Hermann, is, a S' aQvpoGTO^ioQ axw imb 
TTiKpag of/xojyag ox^lrai rijXecpavqg, i. e., rrjXoaa, IksX (l)aLvofj.evr]. Tr. — 
T have followed Dindorf, who changes £x;a»r (3apH — aS' a 9. to 'ex<^v (Sdpri. 
ad' d9 and viroKUTai, to vir' oxurai. Wunder is uncertain. B. 

^ There are two accounts of the manner in which Philoctetes becarne 
thus diseased. The one which Sophocles appears to have followed states, 
that he landed on an island near Lemnos, called Chryse, whereon he had 
been directed to sacrifice to Minerva in behalf of the Greeks, and was 
bitten by a serpent that guarded the spot. The other attributes his mis- 
fortune to the vengeance of heaven, for his having disclosed, by stamping 
with his foot, the place where Hercules' remains had been interred, which 
was soon followed by the fall of one of his patron's arrows on the guilty 
member. 

They who have made mention of Minerva Chrysa in this matter, have 
not explained why a goddess who was desirous of the taking of Troy, 
f^hould throw an obstacle in the way of that catastrophe by the mischance 
of Philoctetes. Herm. 

" Hercules received his bow and arrows from Apollo. 

^ ^0^ itt' dvdyKaQ, " prae dolore." Cf. v. 206. kut uvaytav 

ipTTOVTOQ. B. 



294 PHILOCTETES. 219—246. 

Philoctetes. O strangers, who can ye be that with 
mariner's oar have put into this land, neither good of har- 
bourage nor inhabited^? For what possible country or race 
should I be right in saying you were ? For the array of your 
dress is that of Greece, my best-beloved : but I would hear 
your voice : and ao not recoiling with horror be astounded at 
me thus brutalized, but in pity to an unhappy man, lonely, 
thus forlorn, friendless, and in pain, speak to me, if indeed ye 
come as friends. But answer in your turn*, for it is not just 
that in this at least either you should be disappointed in me, 
or I in you. 

Ne . But, stranger, know this first, that we are Greeks, for 
this thou wouldst leani. 

Ph. O accents most dear! Ah! to think that I should 
hear the voice of such a man after so long a time ! What 
need, my son, put thee in, what brought thee hither ? What 
impulse ? Which of the winds, most friendly } Tell me all 
this, that I may know who thou art. 

Ne. I am by birth from the wave-girt Scyros^, and I am 
sailing homewards : and am called the son of Achilles, Neop- 
tolemus. Now thou knowest the whole. 

Ph. O son of a sire most dear, of a land beloved, thou 
nursling of the aged Lycomedes, with what armament hast 
thou touched at this land ? whence voyaging .'' 

Ne. From Ilion then now at least, mark me, I steer my 
course. 

Ph. How sayest thou? For surely thou wert not our 
fellow sailor in the beginning of our voyage to Troy. 

* It must not be supposed, from these and similar expressions through- 
out the play, that Lemnos was entirely uninhabited^ since the descendants 
of the Argonauts dwelt there — and Homer (Od. VIII. 283.) calls the 
island ivKTiixtvov irrokikQ^ov — but only those parts of it which Philoc- 
tetes inhabited, whose range must necessarily, from his lameness, have 
been very confined. 

2 The silence of Neoptolemus in this place is caused by his pity, and 
the necessity of recovering himself, in order to play his part in the strata- 
gem of Ulysses, Hermann. 

^ Scyros is an island of the iEgean, about thirty miles north of Euboea, 
and belonged originally to the Pelasgians and Carians : it was thither that 
Thetis sent Achilles, to prevent his joining the armament to Troy, and 
there that hero became father of Neoptolemus by Deidamia, daughter of 
Lycomedes, the king of the island. Neoptolemus consequently was 
educated to consider Scyros as his home, although Pthiotis was his father'.s 
inheritance. 



247—280. . FHILOCTETES. 295 

Ne. How, didst thou also take part in that labour? 

Ph. My son, knowest thou not me, on whom thou lookest? 

Ne. Why how should I know thee, whom I have never 
seen before ? 

Ph. What? hast thou never heard my name even, nor any 
rumour of my miseries, whereby I was ruined ? 

Ne. Be assured I know nothing of the things of which thou 
questionest me. 

Ph. greatly wretched that I am, and hateful to the gods, 
of whom thus situated not even a report has pervaded my 
home, nor any where else in the land of Greece ; but they 
that cast me impiously away, laugh in silence, while my 
disease is ever virulent, and increases more and more. O 
child, thou ^on of Achilles thy father, I am he whom thou 
perhaps hearest of as lord of the arms of Hercules, Philoc- 
tetes the son of Poias ; whom the two generals and the Ce- 
phalenians' king have thus basely cast out destitute\ wasting 
away by a cruel disease, having been striken by the savage 
impressure of the deadly serpent, wherewith they, my son, 
having put me on shore here abandoned, went off, at the time 
when from Ocean Chryse they touched here with their naval 
expedition. Then eagerly, when they saw me after much 
tossing on the main sleeping upon the shore within an o'er- 
arched rock, they left me and departed, having deposited a 
few rags as for a wretch like me, and also some scanty pit- 
tance of food% such as O that they might have! Thinkest 
thou then, my son, with what an awakement I rose from sleep 
at that time, when they were gone, what tears I wept, what 
dreadful shrieks I uttered, beholding all the ships gone, com- 

1 Ulysses followed througli the wat'ry road, 
A chief in wisdom equal to a god, 

With those whom Cephalenia's isle inclosed, 
Or till their fields along the coast opposed. 

Pope's II. B. II. 766. 

2 This was also the case when any one among the ancients was con- 
demned to be buried alive, lest pollution should come upon the land, as we 
find in Antigone. The Ramans preserved the custom in their treatment 
of the vestals convicted of unchastity. Hermann translates it, "such as 
they might happen to have." Tr.— On these rags of Philoctetes, which 
became almost proverbial, Matthias ap^xxsitely refers to Aristoph. Acharn. 
423, TTo'iag ttoQ' avrip XaKiSag ahCiTai Trk-KXuiv ; dX\' ri ^iXokttjtov rd 
Toil TTTOJXov XiyHQ. B. 



296 .pniLocTETES. 281—316 

■manding which I was sailing, and not a human being on the 
spot, nor one to assist me, nor to unite in easing my disease 
while I suffered with it^. But, regarding all things, I found 
nought present but affliction, but of this, my son, large store. 
So in time my days passed on, and I was compelled alone to 
minister every thing for myself under this humble roof. What 
was needful for my stomach this bow procured, striking down 
the fluttering doves ; and then to whatsoever my nerve-strung 
arrow would pierce, I hapless would roll myself'', dragging 
after me my foot towards it. And if I wanted to procure me 
aught to drink, and when the frost was scattered, as in winter, 
anywhere to break up some wood, this would I wretched 
creeping forth contrive. Then would there be at hand no fire, 
but rubbing stone on stone, hardly did I elicit the hidden light, 
which ever preserves me. For this covered cave inhabited 
with fire supplies me all but freedom from disease. Come, 
my son, now shalt thou learn the state of the island. To this 
no mariner willingly draws near, for there is no harbour, nor 
whither voyaging he may traffic for gain, or be hospitably 
received. Nor hither are the voyages of the prudent among 
men. Now haply some one hath against his will touched 
here, for many such cases might occur in the protracted time 
of man. These when they come, my son, compassionate me 
indeed, in words, and sometimes in pity they have bestowed 
on me in addition some portion of food, or some raiment : 
but that one thing, when I shall mention it, wills none, to take 
me safe home, but wretched I am perishing now this the 
tenth year, in hunger and in misery feeding my ravenous 
malady. Thus have the Atridas and Ulysses' might, my 
son, treated me, to whom may the gods of heaven one day 
give themselves to sufier a requital of my Avrongs\ 

^ For the construction cf. Eurip. Med. 946. tv\\ry^o}iai Se tovcs 
GOL Kayoj Tcovov. Aristoph. Vesp. 733 aoi .... ^vWa^jSava too Trpciy- 
jxaroQ. B. 

2 " 'E'lKvofxriv, ab tikvo) vel eiXvjxi, volvo, verto : hinc eiXvoi-iai, verto 
me, i.e., proficiscor. Imprimis vero de difficulter et segre incedentibus 
dicitur, quare Hesychius interpretatur per TtTpaTro6iZ,uv, cf. v. 702, quem 
locum Hesychius forsitan respexit." Barby. 

^ Sophocles does not mention whether or no Philoctetes became recon- 
ciled to the Atridae and Ulysses ; but this his curse was amply fulfilled on 
Agamemnon, who was murdered by his wife ; on Menelaus, who was car- 
ried by a storm to Egypt, and was eight years in returning to Sparta ; and 
on Ulysses, whose wanderings and distresses are Well known. 



317—345. . pniLocTETES. 297 

Ch. Mcthlnks I too, son of Poias, compassionate thee 
equally with the strangers that have arrived hither. 

Ne. Nay I too myself, a witness to thee in these thy words, 
know they are true, having met with the Atridse and the 
mighty Ulysses to be bad men. 

Ph. What, hast thou also any charge against the all- 
accursed Atridee, so as being wronged to feel rage at them ? 

Ne. Be it mine with my hand to glut that rage one day, 
that both Mycenae and Sparta may know that Scyros too is 
the mother of puissant men. 

Ph. Well done, my son; and for what cause hast thou 
come laying to their charge this thy fierce anger? 

Ne. Son of Poias, I will declare, yet hardly can I speak, 
the wrongs wherewith I was insulted by them on my arrival. 
For when Fate prevailed that Achilles should die 

Ph. Ah me ! tell me no further ere I shall have learnt this 
first, if the son of Peleus be dead. 

Ne. He is, conquered by no man, but stricken down by 
the arrows of a god, as they report, Apollo^ 

Ph. Nay then, noble was both the slayer and the slain". 
But I am at a loss, my son, whether I shall first inquire into 
thy sufferings, or mourn him. 

Ne. I indeed think thine own grievances suffice thee at 
least, unhappy man, so that thou shouldst not bewail thy 
neighbours'. 

Ph. Thou hast said rightly. Wherefore tell me again and 
afresh thy matter wherein they have insulted thee. 

Ne. There came after me in a richly-decked^ vessel both 
the noble Ulysses and my father's guardian^, asserting, whether 

^ This is from Homer, who makes the dying Hector utter the following 
prophecy : — 

Yet think a day will come, when fate's decree 
And angry gods shall wreak this wrong on thee: 
Phoebus and Paris shall avenge my fate, 
And stretch thee here, before this Sca&an gate. 
See note on Ajax, v. 970. 
^ As (jt6\oq is often used for the head of a ship [^sch. Pers. 405. 
Xa\Kr]pr]Q oroXog, Cf. aKpocrroXiov, Pindar Pyth. II. 114.] I should take 
irotfciXoffroXog vavg in the sense above assigned, with Eustathius and 
Wunder. One translator thinks it equivalent to iroXvKXrj'ig, which seems 
forced. B. 

■* Phoenix, son of Amyntor, king of Argos, having by his mother's per- 



'298 PHILOCTETES. ^46— 373. 

true indeed, or false, that it could not come to pass, since my 
father had fallen, that any other but I should take Troy, 
This, O stranger, they stating thus, I delayed me no long 
time, so as not to sail speedily, most particularly indeed out 
of affection for the deceased\ that I might see him unburied, 
for I had never beheld him. Next however fair renown pre- 
sented herself, if by my going I might take the castle of Troy. 
And now it was the second day of my voyage, and I with 
favouring oar was gaining the hateful Sigajum, when instantly 
on my landing, the whole army in a circle began to embrace 
me, swearing that they beheld alive again Achilles then no 
more*. There then was he lying. But I, the miserable, not 
long after that I had wept over him, having come to my 
friends the Atrida3, as was reasonable, demanded of them 
the arms of my father, and all else that was his. But they 
spake, ah me ! most shameless words : " Son of Achilles, all 
else that was thy father's it is allowed thee to take ; but of 
those arms another warrior now is master, the son of Laertes," 
And I in tears forthwith rise up to go in deep /esentment, 
and indignant answer, "Wretch ! and have ye dared to give 
my armour to any in my stead, ere you learnt my pleasure ?" 
But Ulysses said, for he happened to be close by : "Yes, boy, 
in justice have they given me these, for I was present to save 
them and their master^." And I enraged instantly began to 

suasion entered into an intrigue with a favourite mistress of his father, was 
detected, and, as some say, blinded by that monarch. He then quitted 
his country for the court of Peleus, who persuaded Chiron to restore him to 
sight, and conferred on him the sovereignty of the Dolopians, In grati- 
tude for these favours he undertook the tuition of Achilles, and accom- 
panied that hero to the Trojan war, at the close of which he returned with 
Pyrrhus, and died in Thrace. V, I. IX. 448. 

1 Hermann here recommends us to avoid a strict inquiry into dates, since 
if Achilles left the court of Lycomedes for Troy, Neoptolemus could be 
only ten years old. 

2 Livy has a similar passage B. XXI. c. 4 : — " Missus Annibal in His- 
paniam primo statim adventu omnera exercitum in se convertit. Amilcarem 
viventem redditum sibi veteres milites credere, euudem vigorem in vultu, 
vinaque in oculis, habitum oris, lineamentaque tueri." Tr. — Compare 
Herodian. I. 10. B. 

^ In unison with this, Ovid makes Ulysses thus express himself: — 
Me miserum ! quanto cogor meminisse dolore 
Temporis illius, quo Graium murus Achilles 
Procubuiti nee me lachrymse luctusve timorve 



574—405. PHILOCTETES. 29>* 

assail them with every word of reproach, framing no ban im- 
perfect, if he were to bereave me of mine arms. But he thus 
situated, even though he is not choleric, womided at what he 
heard from me, thus replied : '' Thou wert not where we were, 
but absent where thou oughtest not to have been. And these 
also, since thou speakest also thus bold in tongue, think not 
thou shalt ever sail hence to Scyros possessing." Having 
heard and been reviled with such taunts as these, I am sailing 
homeward, spoiled of mine own, by that vilest of a vile race, 
Ulysses. And I blame not him so much as those in power. 
For a city is all its leaders', and so is a whole combined 
host ; but they among mankind that are dishonourable, 
become iniquitous by the precepts of their teachers. My tale 
has all been told : and may he that abhors the Atridse be as 
much beloved by the gods as he is by me. 

Ch. O mountain Earth, nurse of all, mother of Jove him- 
self, who hauntest the ample Pactolus rich in gold, even there, 
O venerable parent, I prayed to thee, when on Neoptolemus 
the consummate insolence of Atreus' sons was venting itself, 
when they gave from him his father's arms, thou blessed god- 
dess\ on bull-rending lions seated, as a mark of supreme 
respect to the son of Laertes. 

Ph. Ye have sailed hither, strangers, possessed, it seems, 
of a token'* plain enough to me, and ye agree with me [in 
your complaints,] so as for me to recognize these for the 
doings of the Atridae and Ulysses. For I am quite sure that 

Tardarunt, quin corpus humo sublime referrem ; 

His humeris, his, inquam, humeris ego corpus Achillis 

Et simul arma tuli. 

Metam. L. XIII. v. 280. 
^ The Chorus appealed to Rhea on that, occasion as chief deity of the 
country in which they then were, for that goddess was generally by the 
ancients considered the same with Cybele, and worshipped chiefly in Lydia, 
(of which Pactolus is the principal stream) and Phrygia. She is usually 
represented as riding on a car drawn by the lions into which she had 
changed Hippomenes andAtalanta; but Barby suggests that the present 
substitution of bulls may designate the change from savage to civilized 
life. 

2 On the (Tj/jL/jSoXov, or signet of introduction given by persons to their 

friends on setting out on a journey, see Musgrave, who refers to Aristid. 

t. i. p. 416, iKavov tori Trpbg civrov, i6(nrep dWo ri avy.^o\ov, avrb to 

• crxvfia Trig drvxiag. Mutual misfortune was the avu^oXov between 

Philoctetes and Neoptolemus. B. 



80Q PHILOCTETES* 406—147. 

he would attempt with his tongue every evil word and villany, 
by which he purposes in the end to work nothing honest. 
But this to me at least is not at all a wonder, but it were so, 
if Ajax the greater were there to witness all this, and en- 
dured it. 

Ne. He was no longer alive, my friend ; for never while 
he lived at least had I thus been plundered. 

Ph. How sayest thou ? And is he too dead and gone ? 

Ne. Be aware that he is no longer in life. 

Ph. Ah me unhappy ! But not the son of Tydeus\ nor 
the bargain of Sisyphus^ to Laertes, they surely cannot be 
dead ? For they should not live. 

Ne. No indeed. Be sure of that at least. No, they are 
flourishing finely at present in the Greek host. 

Ph. But what of him who is aged and yet stout, the friend 
of Philoctetes, Nestor the Pylian, is he yet alive ? For he 
surely had checked their crimes, taking wise counsel. 

Ne. He indeed is now faring badly, since Antilochus, the 
only child he had\ is dead and lost to him. 

Ph. Ah me ! tidings equally dire hast thou brought me 
of those two, of whose death I had least been %villing to hear. 
Alas ! alas ! to what then must one look, when they are dead, 
and Ulysses yet remains even there, where in their room he 
ought to be spoken of as dead ? 

Ne. An artful combatant is he; but even artful designs, 
O Philoctetes, are often thwarted. 

Ph. Come, by the gods I ask, tell me where in that season 
was thy friend Patroclus, who was thy father's best- 
beloved ? 

Ne. He too had fallen. But in a few words I will instruct 
thee in this. War purposely carries off no wicked man, but 
ever the virtuous. 

^ We do not find hitherto any mention of Dioraed as having incurred 
the wrath of Philoctetes, but his known intimacy with Ulysses, and 
infamous conduct to Dolon, afford strong suspicions of his having joined 
in the wrong done to the son of Poias. 

3 Anticlea, wife of Sisyphus, was pregnant when she married Laertes. 
See Ovid. Met. xiii. 31, sqq. and Hermann. B. 

3 Nestor had seven sons, two of whom accompanied him to the Trojan 
war. The epithet jxovog, here applied to Antilochus, is usually supposed 
to mean the survivor of these two. Antilochus was slain by Memnon the 
iEthiopian. 



448—453. kllLOCTETKS. 301 

Ph. I bear thee witness : and by this very same rule I 
Avill now question thee of a worthless being, yet shrewd of 
tongue and cunning, what is his condition now. 

Ne. Of what man dost thou ask this, save Ulysses ? 

Ph. I spake not of him; but there was one ThersitesS 
who never would choose but once to speak what none could 
bear to hear : knowest thou if he chance to live ? 

Ne. I saw him not, but heard he was yet in being^ 

Ph. He was likely ; since never yet did aught of e^il 
perish, but of such things^ the gods take especial care: and 
somehow the treacherous and the wily they delight in res- 
piting from Hades*, but the just and the upright they are 
ever dismissing. Where must we place this to account, 
wherein approve, when, lauding the acts of the gods, I find 
the gods unjust ? 

Ne. I, O son of an CEtaean^ father, now henceforth from 

* Thersites only clamour'd in the throng, 

Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue : 

Awed by no shame, by no respect controll'd. 

In scandal busy, in reproaches bold, 

With witty malice studious to defame ; 

Scorn all his joy, and laughter all his aim. 

Pope's II. II. 255. Tr. 
— There is some awkwardness in the expression oq ovk av t'iXer' tiacLTra^ 
t'nreiv ottov Mrihlg t(p7], which the scholiast interprets a ovk yOeXkv rii^ 
uTcaK cLKovaai, ravra ttoWclkiq iXeyev. We must render elacnra^ nirtiv 
" to say, and have done with it," like the Latin use of " semel," = " once 
for all." So ^sch. Prom. 750, Kptlacov -yap daa-Kat, QavHv. See 
Herm. on (Ed. Col. 1420- After ii^r} understand t'nrtiv. B. 

2 All other authors say that he fell by the hand of Achilles. The 
scholiast attributes his death to his having struck out Penthesilea's eye 
after that Princess had fallen by the hand of Achilles. " Prudenter 
Sophojles ea dicentem fecit Neoptolemum, quae et a patre ejus ignobile 
facinus declinarent, et egregie declararent obscuritatem Thersitae." Herm. 

3 Observe the enallage, avra after obhiv kukov. See Jelf. Gk. Gr. 
vol. ii. § 380, 1. B. 

^ Not unreasonably then in Philoctetes' opuiion might Nestor, as in 
Shakspeare he does, say of Hector, 

*' Lo! Jupiter is yonder, dealing life." 
Since to this very Thersites, alter he has given an account of himself per- 
fectly accordant with what issaid of him here, the Trojan warrior rephes, 
" I do beheve thee; live." There is however an allusion to Sisyphus. 

^ CEta, whereon Hercules burnt himself, is a mountainous range on 
the confines of Thessaly and Macedonia, extending from Pindus to Ther- 
mopylae and the Malian territory, over which Poias reigned. 



802 PHILOCTETES. 454—494. 

afar looking on both Ilium and the Atridae will beware of 
them, and where the worse is of greater power than the good, 
and all that is good is on the wane, and the coward prevails, 
these men never will I hold dear. No, the rocky Scyros^ 
hereafter shall content me, to pleasure myself at home. And 
now will I go to my vessel, and do thou, son of Poias, fare- 
well, most well, and may the gods emancipate thee from thy 
disease, as thyself wishest. But let us begone, that when- 
soever the god shall grant us sailing, even then we may 
weigh anchor. 

Ph. Are ye now bound to sail, my son ? 

Ne. Yes, for occasion invites us to watch a time not to sail 
out of sight of the ship rather than near it. 

Ph. Now by thy father and thy mother, my son, and by 
aught that is dear to thee, if aught there be, at home, I a 
suppliant implore thee, leave me not thus forlorn and lonely 
in these alBElictions, such as thou seest, and as many as thou 
hast heard I live in ; but take me into the bargain^. 
The annoyance, I well know, of this freightage will be great, 
yet still put up with it. To the generous, mark me, both 
baseness is hateful, and virtue glorious. But to thee, 
having left this undone, the reproach is not creditable, and 
having performed it, my son, the noblest meed of fair renown, 
should I live to reach the (Etsean land. Come. The trouble, 
look you, is not that of one whole day. Determine on it : 
take and cast me in whither thou wilt, into the hold, the 
prow, the stern, wherever I am least likely to offend thy 
mates. Assent, by Jove of suppliants himself, my son be 
persuaded. I fall at thy knees before thee, though I wretched 
am infirm and lame. Nay, leave me not thus deserted, far 
from any trace of man ; but either take and carry me safe to 
thine home, or to the abodes of Chalcodon in Eubcea^ : and 
thence my voyage will not be a long one to QSta, and the 
rocky ridge of Trachis, and the fair-flowing Spercheius, that 
thou mayest present me to my dear father, of whom it is long 
that I have feared lest he be gone from me ; since often did 

^ 'Ap%») Sfcvpia became a Greek proverb, furnishing much the same 
idea as a German duchy or principality does to us. 

2 See Brunck's note. Tr. — i. e. "do your best for me, without trouble 
to yourself." Cf. Liddell, s. v. B. 

3 Td (rrdOfia are properly the anchorage for ships. Chalcodon was au 
ancient king of Euboea, father of Elephenor. V. II. IV. v. 464. 



495—527. PiiiLOCTETES. 803 

I send for him by those who came hither, conveying to him 
suppliant entreaties that he would himself embarking rescue 
me and carry me hence to my home. But either he is dead, 
or. I suppose, my emissaries, as is likely, making my case of 
slight account, hurried their voyage homewards. Now, how- 
ever, since I am come to thee as at once my convoy and my 
messenger, do thou save me, do thou pity me, beholding 
how everything is doomed to man in trouble and in hazard, 
to receive blessings, or the contrary*. But it becomes one 
while exempt from woes to look to the dangers, and when 
any one shall live prosperously, at that time most narrowly 
to watch his life, lest he be unwarily brought to destruction. 

Ch. Pity him, O king* : he hath recounted the struggles 
of many a trouble hard to bear, so many as may no friend of 
mine ever happen on. But if, O king, thou hatest the bitter 
Atrida3, I for my part, transposing their evil to advantage for 
this man, would convey him thither whither he has mentioned, 
to his home, on board my well-equipped, swift bark, avoiding 
the vengeful wrath from heaven. 

Ne. BcM^are thou, lest now thou be here a sort of easy 
person, but when thou hast been sated with the company of 
his disease, then thou show thyself no longer the same as in 
these words^. 

Ch. By no means. This reproach it cannot be that thou 
wilt ever have in justice to rebuke me withal, 

Ne, Nay, but it were base, that I should show myself 
less ready than thou art in taking seasonable trouble for the 
stranger. But if it seems fit, let us sail, let him hasten with 
speed ; for the ship shall carry him, and he shall not be re- 

^ Thus Horace, L. II. Od. 10. 

Sperat infestis, metuit secundis 

Alteram sortem bene prseparatum 

Pectus. 
2 The commentators question here, whether the chorus are acquainted 
•with the plans of Ulysses and dissimulation of Pyrrhus or not. Barby 
considers them ignorant of it all, and that the pity they wish to prove by 
deeds is unfeigned ; which, though it accords well with Horace's rule for 
the management of the tragic Chorus, is not so reconcilable with the 
instructions previously given on the stage to Ncoptolemus by Ulysses, 
unless we suppose the ancients to have had recourse to that disgrace of 
most modern plays, the " aside." 

2 i. e. 6 avTOQ Ti^ Tavra Xsyovri. Cf. CEd. R. 557. Kai vvv W avro^ 
iifii rep (SovXtvfiaTi. B. 



^4 ' t»HILOCTEfES. 628—553. 

fused. Only may the gods take us safe from this land at 
least, and to whatsoever place we wish to sail from hence. 

Ph. O day most beloved, O man most pleasing, and ye, 
dear sailors, how might I become manifest to you by deeds, 
how much attached to you ye have made me ! Let us be 
gone, my son, having bidden farewell with a kiss to my house- 
less abode within, that ye may learn of me on what I con- 
tinued to live, and how stout of heart I was by nature, for I 
think that none else save me, having taken but a mere sight 
of them with his eyes, had endured all this; but I of necessity 
was foretaught to he resigned to miseries^ 

Ch. Hold, let us learn the matter ; for two men, the one 
a mariner in thy Vessel, the other a foreigner, are coming, 
of whom having learnt [their purpose] go ye afterwards 
within. 

Merchant. Son of Achilles, this, the comrade of thy 
voyage, who was with two others the guardian of thy ship, 1 
desired to tell me where thou mightest chance to be, since I 
have fallen upon thee, not indeed supposing I should, but in 
a manner by chance having put into this land. For being 
bound, as master of a vessel, with no large equipment, from 
Troy homcNvards to Peparethus' rich in the clustering grape, 
when I heard from the sailors that they were all the crews of 
thy vessels', it seemed fit to me not silently to peiibrm my 
voyage, until I had made a disclosure to thee, having met with 
a fair requital*. Perhaps thou knowest nought of what con- 

^ 'Ayarrq-v is used in the same sense. Tr. — Cf. Blomf. on ^sch. 
Prom. II. and note on (Ed. Tyr. 11. B. 

2 Peparethus is a small island in the -^Egean sea, off the coast of Mace- 
donia, once celebrated for its vines and olives, Tr. — There ismuch diffi- 
culty and disturbance in the state of the following lines, which at present 
are far from satisfactory. In the edition by Mr. G. Burges, a most 
ingenious and probable transposition of them is proposed, involving but 
little verbal alteration. See his notes on vss. 549 — 556, page 45 of 
Valpy's edition. B. 

2 Dobree reads (TvvvevavcxToKrjKOTeg, which Wunder (who has since 
changed his mind) and Burges (who has not) adopted. The article is 
ridiculously out of place, as it can only mean, " they formed the whole of 
your crew," which is not the information wanted. The stress ought to 
be on Trdvreg, and retaining Dobree's reading, the sense will be, " that 
they all belonged to your crew," or, " that they all were fellow-sailors 
-^itil you.' B. 

•* Commentators are much divided on this passage. Brunck condemn^ 



f)54— 572. PIIILOCTETES. 305. 

cems thyself, what are the new resolves of the Greeks touch- 
ing thy concerns^, nor merely resolves, hut deeds now doing, 
and no longer loitered in. 

Ne. Nay, a kindly gratitude', for thy friendly care, O 
stranger, unless I have been born a villain, shall remain ; but 
do thou expound all that thou hast mentioned, that I may 
learn what new plot of the Greeks against me thou bearest. 

Mer. Both the aged Phoinix and Theseus' sons' are gone 
in pursuit of thee with a naval squadi-on. 

Ne. With intent to carry me back by force or by per- 
suasion .'' 

Mer. I know not, but having heard am here to tell thee. 

Ne. What, do then Phoenix and the partners of his voyage 
do this thus hastily to pleasure the Atridae ? 

Mer. Be sure that all this is now doing, and no longer to 
come. 

Ne. Hoav then was not Ulysses voluntarily ready to saix. 
for this purpose ? was it any fear that withheld him ? 

Mer. He and Tydeus' son were setting out after another 
warrior, when I weighed anchor. 

Ne. Who might this be, for whom Ulysses himself was 
sailing ? 

the scholiast for referring Trpocrrvxovri to fxoi, and alters it to Trpoorvxwv 
Ti. Heath would read, Trpocrrvxov ri, tu)v 'iawg .... that is, qucedam 
quee m'thi nota esse contigerunt, quorum iuforsan nihil nosti. Musgrave 
corrects it, TrpoffTvxovri, twv 'iatog .... visum est mihi, quum semel 
incidissem, non silentio prius ahire, quam tibi dicerem, de quibus tu 
nihil fortasse nosti. There does not, however, seem to be any good 
reason why TrpocFTvxcvTi should not be referred to fioi, though not in the 
sense in which the scholiast understands it. Tr. — "prjemio affectus prop- 
ter ea quae nuntiassem." Wunder. 

^ aficpl crovvsKa is defended by Hermann, as a similar phrase to rivog 
Sr] xopn^ 'ivsKa in Plato, or cnrb fSoiig 'ivtKtv, a/Kpl aov being construed 
as a noun, which the peculiar construction of d[j.<pi certainly countenances. 

2 Buttman remarks that ^op'C TTiOocr^fXrjt" is a pleonasm, as^^P'C its^elf 
denotes friendly gratitude. ' Cf. Hom. II. iv. 95. xvii. 147. below, 1370. 
B. 

3 These were Acamas and Demophoon, worthy of their father, since 
the last is celebrated for his desertion of Phyllis, and the former going 
with Diomed to demand Helen of the Trojans, seduced Laodice, the 
daughter of Priam. This prince is said to have founded the city of Aca- 
mantium in Phrygia, and on his return to Athens gave his name to one of 
its tribes. 



306 PHILOCTETES. 573—604. 

Mer. There was indeed a man — But first tell me of this 
man here, who he is ; and what thou sayest, speak not aloud. 

Ne. This before you is the illustrious Philoctetes, stranger. 

Mer. Now ask me no more, but with all speed sail hence, 
and away with thyself from this land. 

Ph. What says he, my son ? What can be the reason that 
thus darkly the mariner trafficks in me in his words to thee ? 

Ne. As yet I know not what he says, but it needs he speak 
openly what he Avill speak, to thee, and me, and these here 

Mer. O offspring of Achilles, impeach me not to the army, 
as disclosing- what I ought not. I, doing them many a service, 
receive of them a fair requital, such as a poor man may. 

Ne. I am a foe to the Atridae\ and this is my dearest 
friend, for that he detests the Atridae : it is then thy duty, at 
least as coming well-affected towards me, to conceal not a 
word of all thou hast heard before us. 

Mer. Look to what thou doest, my soil 

Ne. And long since I do consider. 

Mer. I will lay the blame of this on thee. 

Ne. Do so, but speak. 

Mer. I do. Against this man, these two, even as thou 
hearest, Tydeus' son and the puissant Ulysses*, are sailing, 
under a solemn oath that positively they will either by words 
persuade and bring him back, or by the power of force. And 
this all the Greeks heard Ulysses openly declaring : for he 
had more confidence than the other, that he should effect all 
this. 

Ne. Eut on what account are the Atridae after so long a 
time so very anxious for this man, whom they now for a long 
season have driven and kept away ? What is the want that 
has invaded them, or what force and indignation from heaven, 
that avenges wicked deeds ? 

Mer. I will inform thee of all this throughout, for haply 
thou hast not heard it. There was a high-bom seer, the son 

* See Brunck's note on the metre here, and also (Ed. Tyr. 332. GEd. 
Col. 939. Ant. 458. 

2 To make his tale more plausible, the pretended merchant joins Diomed 
with Ulysses in this enterprise, as they were both eminent in intamy, both 
protected by Minerva, and usually partners to execute any scheme of 
treachery, aichas the murder of Dolon or of Rhesus, or the theft of the 
Falladiuru, 



05—634. PHILOCTETES. 307 

of Priam, and he was called by name Helenus^ whom he, the 
crafty Ulysses, that hears of himself eyery base and insulting 
term, haying gone out alone by night, took prisoner, and 
bringing him bound into the midst of the Greeks, displayed 
him. a noble booty : who thereupon foretold to them both 
eyery other point, and that it could not be that they should 
eyer take the citadel of Troy, unless they brought, haying 
persuaded him by their words, this warrior here from this 
island whereon he is at present dwelling. And when the 
oifspring of Laertes heard the prophet uttering these words, 
he instantly imdertook to bring and present to the Greeks 
this man ; he must suppose, haying taken him in preference 
with his consent ; but if he would not, against it ; and not 
succeeding in tliis. he bid any one that would to cut off his 
head. My son. thou hast heard all : but to be quick I exhort 
both thee thyself, and if thou hast a care for any other. 

Ph. Ah me unhappy ! Has he then, that utter pest, sworn 
that he will persuade and conyey me to the Greeks ? For as 
well shall I be persuaded M'hen dead to rise eyen from Hades 
to light, as did his fathei-^. 

Mer. Of this I know nothing ; but I will go to my vessel, 
and may heayen aid you both as best it may. 

Ph. And is not this shameful, m.j son, that Laertes' son 
should ever hope by soothing words to carry me on board ship 
and show me in the midst of the Greeks ? No ; sooner would 
I hsten to the yiper, my deadliest bane, that made me thus 
lame of foot^. But by him can eyerything be said and eyery- 
thing be attempted : and now I know that he will come. But 

^ Other authors differ in their chronology at this period, for they state 
that Heienus, on the marriage of Deiphobus with Helen, retired in disgust 
to mount Ida, whence Ulysses carried him to the Greek camp. But Paris, 
as is foretold in this play to Philoctetes, was slsdn by the arrows of Her- 
cules. 

- This alludes to a well-known trick of Sisyphus, who being on his 
death-bed, charged his wife Merope to leave him unburied. She complied, 
and on Sisyphus' arrival in Hades he complained to Pluto of her impiety, 
which he requested leave to punish. This was granted, and he returned 
to earth under promise of revisiting hell as soon as he should have avenged 
himself. No sooner had he regained life, however, than he violated his 
oath: for which he was afterwards punished. 

2 " 'ATroi'v : TToi/c in casu quarto nunquam quidem habet ttovv, at in 
compositis habet, ut iroXv-rrovv et iroXviroSa." Barby. 

X 2 



308 PHILOCTETES. 635—657 

O my son, let us go, that a wide sea may part us* from 
Ulysses' vessel. Let us begone : timely exertion, look you, 
when the labour is at an end, is wont to bring sleep and repose. 

Ne. Well then, when the wind in our bow shall subside, 
then will we sail, for now it sets against us. 

Ph. The season to sail is ever fair, M'hen thou art flying 
from calamity. 

Ne. Nay, but these same winds are adverse to them. 
Ph. There is no wind contrary to pirates, when it is possi- 
ble to thieve and rob by force. 

Ne. Nay, if thou think fit, let us begone, when thou hast 
taken from within whatsoever thou most feelest need of or 
desire for. 

Ph. Yes, there is whereof I have need^, though from no 
ample store. 

Ne. What is it, which at least is not on board my ship ? 

Ph. I have by me a, certain plant, wherewith chiefly 1 am 
continually deadening my sore, so as thoroughly to assuage it. 

Ne. But bring it out. And what else art thou desirous to 
take? 

Ph. If any one of these my arrows hath fallen beside me 
unheeded, that I may not leave it for any one to take. 

Ne. What, are these the celebrated bow and arrows, that 
thou art now holding ? 

Ph. They are, for there are at least none else that I carry 
in my hands. 

Ne. Is it possible for me to take a close view of them also ? 
and to hold them, and salute them with a kiss^ as divine } 

^ We must read 6pi(^y with Wunder and Burges^ from Brunck's emen- 
dation. B. 

2 " Aei — aTTo. Tmesis est pro aTro^a. Sunt, guibus egeam, nee multis 
tamen." Barby. Tr. — See Hermann. B. 

2 TipoffKvcrai has not always the same signification: vid. v. 776, where it 
means to mitigate by worship the anger of the gods, and to which there is 
a parallel expression in the last verse of the second Psalm. A kiss has in 
all ages, however, been considered as a mark of respect. Hence Cicero : 
Ibi est ex cere simulachrum ipsius Herculis, quo non facile quidquam 
dixerim me vidisse pulchrius — usque eo, judices, ut rictum ejus ac mentum 
paulo sit attritius, quod in precibus et gratulationibus non solemn id vene- 
rari, verum etiam osculari solent. Cic. in Ver. L. IV, 33. Such is the 
account given by travellers of the Kaaba or sacred stone at Mecca also. 
'Vid. Virg. ^n. II. 490. Tibull. El. I. 44. Ovid. Trist. L. I. 44. 



658—689. PniLOCTETES. 309- 

Ph. To thee at least, my son, both this and aught else of 
mine, that may advantage thee, shall be done. 

Ne. Indeed I long to do it, and thus I feel my longing : if 
it be allowable for me, I should wish it, but if not, let it 
alone. 

Ph. My son, thou both speakest piously, and it is allow- 
able for thee at least, who alone hast given me to behold this 
light of the sun, to look on the land of (Eta, on my aged father, 
on my friends, who hast raised me far beyond mine enemies 
when sunk below them. Courage ; it is given thee both to 
touch these arrows, and to return them to the giver; and that 
thou shouldest hereafter make it thy boast that thou alone of 
mankind in guerdon of thy virtue hast handled them, seeing 
that it was by a kind action I myself acquired them^, dis- 
pleased me not, not that I have seen and gained thee for my 
friend : for whoever knows how to retm*n a kindness he has 
received must be a fi'iend above all price. 

Ne. Thou shouldst go within. 

Ph. Ay. and I will bring thee in too, for my disease longs 
to possess thee as my supporting aid. 

Ch. I have heard fully in story, yet truly I never witnessed, 
how that the all-powerfid son of Saturn caught Ixion^. once 
the invader of the couch of Jove, and thereupon chained him 
to a whirling wheeP; but of no other do I know by hearsay, 
nor have I seen among mankind, doomed to a lot more hate- 
ful than this man's, who having injm-ed no one by force or 
fraud*, but among the just a just man, hath been ruined thus 
undeservedly. This wonder possesses me. how ever, how ever, 
he lonely listening to the breakers dashing around, how in 

^ Philoctetes had received the arrows in reward for his services to Her- 
cules, and particularly the kindling of his funeral pile on (Eta, Hermann 
supposes a line to be omitted in the Greek text here, and reads iSoJv Kai 
XafSoJv, construing (xk with axQo^ai. If a colon be placed after ^ovvai, the 
passage seems capable of the version given above without an hiatus. Tr. 
— See Burges' note, where he has ingeniously elicited a line from the 
Scholiast, which, could we be more certain, would restore good sense. B. 

2 Ixion's story is too well known to need repetition. Hermann reads 
tj3a\ev, construing cpof-idca with 'I^iova. 

2 The woid djiKv^, which is supported by the authority of Eustathius, 
(vid. Brunck's note,) meant originally the fillet used by women to tie up 
'their hair, vid. Horn. II. XXII. v. 469. and after that came from its round 
form to signify a wheel. Musgrave, however, suggests uvrvya. 



31 0- PHILOCTETES. 690—716. 

truth he could have supported an existence so thoroughly- 
pitiable : where he* was his only neighbour, having no power 
to walk, nor any neighbour of his ills, dwelling in the place, 

to whom he might wail forth his echoed groan*, his, 

painfully gnawing, blood-stained; nor any, who might with 
gentle herbs assuage his most fevered blood bubbling from 
the wounds of his' empoisoned foot, should any come to hand*, 
and might gather it from the fostering earth. For then when 
his soul- gnawing torture might relax, would he crawl like a 
babe without his kind nurse, now to this store now to some 
other, whence he could have easy relief, not gathering the 
sowed nutriment of holy earth, nor of other food wherewith we 
enterprising^ men support ourselves : except if ever by the 
Avinged arrows of his bow striking from afar he might procure 
food for his stomach. Ah wretched soul ! that* for ten long 
years he was not gladdened with the beverage of the flowing 
wine-cup, but gazing on the stagnant waters' wherever he 

1 This appears better suited to comedy than tragedy, and to company 
■with the proxirnns sum egomet mihi, or the often quoted verse, " None but 
himself can be his parallel." Herman says Trpoaovpog in Herodotus sig- 
nifies neighbouring ,- but that Ionic form is, unless I am totally mistaken, 
inadmissible in the tragedians, "With them Trpocrovpog, like tTrovpog, is 
derived from ovpog, ventus secundus ; 'iv avrog f/v Trpocrovpog then will 
mean, in quern locum ipse quasi secundo uenio venerat. Tr. — But since 
airovpog ((Ed. Tyr. 189.) and ^vvovpog (^sch. Ag. 495) are used, why 
not Tzpocovpog also .'' Dindorf now reads with Bothe, Trpoaovpov ovk 
i-XiiiV (idcTiv. B. 

2 Lindemann would read ttovov Ittittovov, for arovov avrirvKov. I 
fancy, with Hermann, that something has been lost, perhaps a participle, 
or substantive agreeing with ainarripov. Nothing can be made of the 
text as it now stands. B. 

2 The scholiast interprets IvOrjpov 9r]po^r]KTOv. Hermann translates it 
with Buttman efferatum, as lvBr\pov Tpi^a, Ag. 571, alluding to the foul 
appearance of the foot clotted with gore. 

^ Herm. li rig efnrsaoi, sc. alfjidg. The passage that follows is altered 
to suit Hermann's text. Tr. — We must understand dvvair' dv, or some 
such phrase, with aXtiv. B. 

^ This epithet is particularly applied to seamen and traders. Cf. Homer 
Od. XIII. 261. Hymn, in ApoU. 458. B. 

6 -^vxd, og. See Buttm. and Jelf, Gk. Gr. T. II. § 379. Obs. 6. This 
exactly corresponds to Homer's \pvxdg .... dvTovg. II. I. 3. 4. B. 

7 From these words of the Chorus Hermann infers, that the running 
stream mentioned in the beginning of the play was not represented on the 
scene, and that Ulysses from that very circumstance there subjoins tiTrep 
iarl awv. 



717—743. PHILOCTETES. 311 

chanced to know it was, ever and anon would he add it to his 
food. Now, however, he shall end his life in happiness, and 
rise to greatness from those miseries, having met with the son 
of brave heroes, who in bark that walks the main, in fulness 
of many months, brings him to his paternal abode of the Melian 
nymphs, and beside the banks of Spercheius, where the brazen- 
shielded hero enters the assembly of all the gods\ all radiant 
in heavenly fire, above the mounds of (Eta. 

Ne. Crawl out, an thou wilt. What can be the matter, 
that thus from no assignable reason thou art silent, and thus 
struck dumb are kept so? 

Ph. Oh! alas! alas! 

Ne. What is it ! 

Ph. No harm. But proceed, my son. 

Ne. Is it that thou feelest pain from thy existing ailment? 

Ph. Not I indeed : no, I think I am just now lightened of 
it. ye gods ! 

Ne. Why thus with groans dost thou invoke the gods ? 

Ph. That they may come as our deliverers, and placable. 
Oh! Oh'^! 

Ne. WTiat can be the matter with thee ? wilt thou not tell, 
but continue thus silent ? Thou art clearly involved in some 
affliction. 

Ph. I am undone, my son, and shall not be able to conceal 
my misery from you*. Alas ! it pierces, pierces me through. 

1 This alludes to the apotheosis of Hercules. Hermann considers the 
epithet merely to denote a warrior. Hesiod has described Hercules' 
shield. 

2 There is a scene not unlike this in the Frogs of Aristophanes, where 
Bacchus and Xanthias contending which is the god, which the slave, and 
^acus proving them by stripes, they invent some curious excuses for their 
cries. 

3 ''Philoctetes, feeling the symptoms of his distemper approaching, 
endeavours as much as possible to conceal his anguish, being apprehensive 
that his cries and groans might induce Neoptolemus, in spite of his pro- 
mise, to leave him behind; he makes slight of it, therefore, till quite over- 
powered by continual torture, he acknowledges himself at last unable to 
stir. This circumstance, we may observe, is artfully thrown in by the 
poet, to stop the effect of Ulysses' stratagem, which was just on the point 
of execution, and which if it succeeded, must of course have put an end to 
the drama: this accident intervening gives a new turn to the whole, serves 
to introduce the remorse and repentance of Neoptolemus, gives Ulysses an 
opportunity of appearing, and brings about the catastrophe." Thus far 



§12 miLocTETEs. yu—7ii. 

Unhappy, wretched me ! I am undone, my son, I am gnawed^ 
my son. Oh ! alas ! alas ! alas ! by the gods, if thou hast ready 
by thee to thine hand any sword, my son, strike me on the 
top of my foot, mow it off as quickly as possible, spare not my 
life. Come, O my child ! 

Ne. But what is this fresh thing thus suddenly risen, for 
which thou utterest so much of waiUng and of groans for thy- 
self! 

Ph. Knowest thou, son ? 

Ne. AVhat is it ? 

Ph. Knowest thou, son ? What is this of thine' ? 

Ne. I know not. 

Ph. How knowest thou not? Woe, woe, woe'! 

Francklin, who does not appear to have remarked the sublime moral con- 
tained in this part of the play, which shows us how often our estimate of 
good or evil fortune is utterly false; and is the more striking, since it at 
once baffles those very plans which Ulysses had endeavoured to recom- 
mend by the Jesuitical doctrine of doing evil that good might follow, and 
asserts the right of Providence to produce good from the evil it has 
permitted. 

^ BpvKtLv and (3pvxeiv, originally the same word> seem by custom to 
have taken different senses, the first mandere, the second frendere. 
Herm. 

2 I have arranged the dramatis personse according to Dindorf, but the 
following is Wunder's, and the correct order, 4>IA. oloQ' w ttoX; KEOII. 
TL aoi.\ OvK olca. $IA. TrCJg .... TraT, B. 

3 Unless all the commentators be mistaken, these expressions and the 
t\t\e\t\eXtv of JEschylus are positive nonsense, and such as our bar- 
barian Shakspeare, with all his false taste and treasons against the unities, 
would have thought unworthy of kings and heroes, and fit to rank only 
vv'ith the '^ Do-de-do-de-do-de" of poor Tom. Indeed it is not impro- 
bable that the comedian's satire was directed against them, since in his 
Clouds, V. 390, he uses a word nearly the same for a most ludicrous pur- 
pose. Let the critic, however, be heard: '^Aptissime ilia crebra repe- 
titio literse tt palpitationem oris et maxillarum, quee hujusmodi dolorum 
propria est exprimit." Hermann.- "Though the spirit of the Greek 
drama," says Schlegel, "required a general repose, favourable to the 
presentation of grand masses, to the embodying of those isolated moments 
sculpture loves to seize, yet the Greeks were so far from neglecting the 
impassioned movements of the soul, that they have dedicated whole lines 
in their tragedies to the inarticulate expression of pain." Tr. — See 
Blomfield's preface to the Persse of ^schylus, in which play this unin- 
telligible style of grief is carried to a great extent. Aristophanes has 
burlesqued it in Ran. 1314. But one question never appears to have 
suggested itself to commentators: Are these expressions mere stage 
directions to the actor? I think that in the choruses, where strictness 



745—785. 1»HIL0CTETES. SlS 

Ne. Grievous at least is the burden of thy distemper. 

Ph. Ay, Grievous indeed, and unspeakable: but pity me. 

Ne. What then shall I do ? 

Ph. Abandon me not , out of fear, for it comes on me but 
at long and uncertain intervals, even as it rages its fill. 

Ne. Alas ! alas ! Miserable that thou art ! Too plainly 
miserable indeed from all manner of woes. Dost thou then 
wish I should hold and touch thee at all? 

Ph. Nay, not this at least: but having taken these my 
weapons, even as just now thou askedst of me, until this pang 
of the disease that is now upon me shall subside, do thoa save 
and guard them. For so sleep seizes me when this attack is 
spent : and before I cannot rest : but ye must let me slumber 
quietl}'. And if during this time they shall come, I charge 
thee by the gods neither voluntarily nor involuntarily nor by 
any means whatever to give up these arms to them, lest thou 
slay at once both thyself and me, that am thy suppliant. 

Ne. Be assured at least of my forethought: they shall not 
be given to any but to thee and me ; and with good omen reach 
them to me. 

Ph. There, take them, son, and with a kiss propitiate envy, 
that they be not the source of many troubles to thee, nor as 
to me and him that before me had them^ 

Ne. Ye gods, be this my fortune, and be mine a favourable 
and well- spent voyage, whithersoever heaven deems fit, and 
the fleet is bound. 

Ph. Nay then I fear lest thy prayer for me be ineffectuaP, 
my son ; for again from the bottom trickles this ray purple 
bubbling blood, and I look for some fresh ill. Woe! alas! 

of metre required consistency, these expressions were chaunted in a half- 
articulate wail, but that single actors, in the Iambic systems, used natural 
and spontaneous exclamations of grief— at least, for the credit of Athenian 
acting, it is to be hoped so. B. 

^ There seems no reason to suppose that Philoctetes alludes to any- 
thing more here than the ill fortune generally of Hercules and himself. 
Hercules slew his children with his arrows certainly; but Sophocles 
ascribes the disease of Philoctetes to the bite of a serpent. Hermann 
seems to be mistaken, however, with regard to the necessity for Philoc- 
tetes' having exchanged his arrows : the Indians use poisoned weapons 
to procure food for themselves. 

^ There is great difficulty in this line, first from the metre, and secondly 
from the elision of the diphthong in jtto/. See Markland on Eur. Suppl. 
158; Porson on Phoe. 1230. Wunder's emendation appears too bold. B. 



314 PHILOCTETES. 786—814. 

alas again ! O foot, what evil wilt thou work me ! this steals 
upon me, draws near to me. Ah me ! ah me ! ye see the case : 
3y no means fly from me. Oh ! oh ! stranger of Cephalenia, I 
would this torture might fasten on thy breast, through and 
through it. O heavens ! Agamemnon, Menelaus, would ye 
might in my stead for an equal length of time harbour this my 
malady ? Ah me ! death, death^ why, when thus ever day 
after day invoked canst thou never at any time come ? My 
son, my noble son, having taken me up, burn me in this oft- 
invoked Lemnian^ fire, thou generous youth ! I too, mark me, 
once thought proper to perform this for the son of Jove, in 
return for these arms which now thou preservest. What 
sayest thou, my son ? what sayest thou ? Why art thou silent ? 
Where canst thou be, my child ? 

Ne. Long since indeed I mourn, sighing over thy woes. 

Ph. Nay, my son, but take courage, since this pain 
suddenly assails me, and is soon gone, but, I conjure thee, 
leave me not alone. 

Ne. Cheer up ; we will stay. 

Ph. And wilt thou stay ? 

Ne. Be well assured of it. 

Ph. I will not, however, think I have a right to bind thee 
by an oath, my son. 

Ne. Since indeed it is not lawful for me to go without 
thee. 

Ph. Give me the pledge of thy hand. 

Ne. I give it thee that I will stay^. 

Ph. Thither now, thither with me 

Ne. Whither sayest thou ? 

^ Cf. ^schyl. Philoct. apud Stob. cxx. 12, w OdvaTS Uaiav, fit} ft 
arifianriQ fioXeXv [xovog yap el ai) raiv dvTjKkariov kukCjv iarpbg, dXyog 

d' Ovdsv UTTTSTai VEKpOV. B. 

2 The island of Lemnos was said to be sacred to Vulcan, probably from 
volcanic fires, which would be an additional reason for the desolate state 
of that quarter of the island which Philoctetes inhabited. Hermann 
restores dvaKoXovukvi^, " this often-invoked fire." [Brunck read dva- 
RVKKovfikva. B.] " Montem Mosychlum, qui Galeni sevo jam diu 
exstinctus erat, circa Alexandri tempora flammas ejicere desiisse, non 
improbabilibus argumentis deraonstrare studuit Buttmannus in Mus. Stud. 
Antiq. Germanico, vol. i. p. 2." Hermann, See Homer's account of 
Vulcan's fall, 11. 2, and of the Loves of Mars and Venus, Od. 8. Tr.— 
The common reading need not be changed, cf. vs. 986. B. 

* Read with Reiske and Burges, fttv ovv. B. 



815—834. PHILOCTETES. 315 

Ph. Upwards 

Ne. What ravest thou again, why gaze&t thou on the vault 
of air above^ ? 

Ph. Let me go, let me go! 

Ne. Whither shall I let thee go ? 

Ph. Let me go at last. 

Ne. I cannot let thee go. 

Ph. Thou wilt ruin me, if thou touch me*. 

Ne. Now then I do leave thee to thyself, if thou art indeed 
any more thyself. 

Ph. O earth, take me to thee, dying as I am, for this evil 
suffers me no longer to stand upright. 

Ne. Sleep will, it seems, in no long time possess the man. 
For this his head is sunk down, see, sweat is trickling over all 
his body, and one black vein burst with blood^, hath forced 
itself open by the extremity of his foot. But, leave we him, 
my friends, quiet, that he may fall asleep*. 

Ch. O sleep, in pain — ^in grief, O sleep, untaught, mayest 
thou come upon us gently-breathing, thou life- cheering, life- 
cheering king ; and retain before his eyes even such a band as 
now is spread around*. Come, come to me a physician®. My 
son, look where thou art about to pause, whither to move, and 

^ KvkXoq here is by some commentators understood to mean the eye, 
as at verse 1354. Struve understands Kara and translates it thus: quid 
oculus (yelallerutro oculo) sursum siispicis? Hermann supposes Philoc- 
tetes to indicate a wish to return to his cave that he may sleep there, 
which permission Neoptolemus grants when it is too late. Tr. — " Coeli 
convexa tueri." B. 

2 Neoptolemus holding Philoctetes by the hand by which he has pledged 
his faith, extends his other to prevent Philoctetes from withdrawing his 
hand, whereupon Philoctetes shrinks from the apprehension of the bow, 
which Neoptolemus holds, touching his foot. Herm. 

^ A'luoppayriQ, from the second aorist passive of the Ionic pj^yw instead 
of pr]yvvjxi. 

* Cf. Trach. 978 j Seneca, Here. ^Et. act iv. sc. 3. 9. B. 

5 Musgrave understands ajyXjj here to mean levamen or solatium, a 
forced interpretation arising from his reception of avrkxaiQ, which Brunck 
has changed to avTi(rxoiQ, and thus improved both the metre and the 
sense. The light of Philoctetes is now darkness. Tr. — Welcker, as 
Burges informs us, rightly interprets a'lyXav from Hesychius, aiyXag, 
d[x^idsaQ. Burges appositely quotes Ovid's "lumina-vincta sopore," 
and Moschus II. vttvoq — Tredaa fia\av(^ Kara <pdea decrfKi). B. 

^ Cf. Ovid, de Ponto I. 2, 33. "At puto, cum requies me(?ecmaqu« 
publica curse: Somnus adest, aolitis nox venit orba malis." B. 



316 PHILOCTETES. 835—860. 

how my further purpose may be cared for'. Thou seest now ; 
for what work tarry we? Opportunity, be sure, possessinj^ 
arbitration of everything, acquires much power in its course^. 

Ne. Nay, but he hears nothing; I however perceive that in 
vain we possess this plunder of his weapons, if without him 
we sail ; for his is the crown ; him heaven commanded us to 
fetch. And to vaunt unfulfilled promises with falsehood is a 
vile reproach^. 

Ch. But this, my son, god will look to ; but with whatever 
thou shalt in turn reply to me, convey to me the accents of 
thy words gently, my son, gently ; since the restless slumber 
of all men is in disease sharp-eyed to discern. But as far as 
thou canst, in secret search out for me that, even that 
which thou meanest to do. Thou knowest whom 1 mean*, 
now if thou hold the same opinion with him, 'tis eminently in 
truth the privilege of the shrewd to see into perplexing 
matters. See, my son, the wind is fair, the wind is fair, and 
the man, sightless, possessed of no defence, is lying in darkness 
(but his warm sleej^ is propitious) master of neither hand, nor 

^ So Buttman : but see Wunder. B. 

- Or, "having respect to everything." Such is the sentiment which 
the Corinthians, and after them the Mityleneans, wish to impress on the 
minds of the Lacedaemonians. Yid. Thuc. 1. c. 69. III. c. 13. 

^ Struve seems to understand this as referring to the disgrace which 
would accrue to Neoptolemus, if after all his falsehood he should vaunt of 
an uncompleted victory : his words are quce manca et ivvjperfecia relique- 
ris, de his mendaciis etiam adhihitis, gloriari velle, turpe est opprobrium; 
and this Barby commends; but the translator is rather inclined to con- 
sider the words as betokening remorse in Neoptolemus. As translated, it 
may mean either. The reader should observe the oracular and stately 
flow of the original in this passage, w^hich seems to stand in the middle of 
the play as the pivot on which turns the w^hole catastrophe. 

^ Hermann proposes to read here, 
olaOa yap ojv avCa>ixaL, 

61 ravrav tovt(^ yvMp.av Irrj^^eig, jxaXa toi, k. t. X. 
which may be thus rendered : " For to them (thou knowest of whom I 
speak) wise men can discover irremediable mischiefs in thy purpose, if 
this be thy purpose towards him who lies before us;" alluding to the 
misery ISTeoptolemus would occasion to the Atridae and the whole Greek 
army. The instance Barby adduces from Catullus, " nihili est," there 
being an evident hiatus and loss of several verses in both that and the 
following strophe. Te. — But dv simply refers to Ulysses, and the sense 
is, 61 tyv dvT7]v Tip 'Oc^vacru yviofjirji^ tx^i-Q. But Wunder and Dindorf 
would omit hndtlv. B. 



SCO— 890. PniLOCTETES. SIT 

foot, nor anything. No, but thou seest his look is as of one 
lying in Hades. See whether you are saying seasonable 
words : for the labor, my son, which does not alarm the game 
to be caught, is, in my opinion the most effectual^ 

Ne. I bid thee be silent, nor be wanting to thy thoughts, 
for the man moves his eye, and raises his head. 

Ph. O light that takest the place of sleep, and p^uardiaa- 
ship of these strangers incredible to my hopes ! Never, my 
son, could I have felt confident that thou wouldst have the 
heart thus compassionately to abide my sufferings, present and 
assisting me. Truly the Atridae, those noble generals, did not 
endiire thus patiently to bear them. But, for thy nature, my 
son. is noble, and of noble origin, thou hast accounted all this 
easy, though oppressed with my cries, and the noisome stench. 
And now, since at length there seems to be an oblivion and 
rest from this woe, my son, do thou thyself take me up, do 
thou set me, my son, upright, that when at last my weariness 
shall quit me, we may hasten to the ship, nor delay our 
voyage. 

Ne. Nay, I am pleased to see thee beyond my hope yet 
enjoying breath and sight without pain. For in thy condition 
of misery just now thy symptoms appeared as those of one no 
more. But now raise thyself, or, if it please thee rather, these 
men shall carry thee, for there is no unwillingness to the 
trouble in them, if indeed it seems fit to thee and me so to 
do. 

Ph. I approve of this'^, son, and take me up, as thou pur- 
posest, but leave them alone, lest they be annoyed with the 

^ " He looks on thee as does one," etc. " See now if thy words be 
seasonable, when thou proposest to stay^ having the best of opportunities 
for departure," Hermann; — who reads rb d' a.\io(ni.iov, and places only 
a comma after tzoX. This will be, " but what my judgment apprehends 
my son, is this; that labour without fear is the most eligible." Tr. — 
The interpretation given to the latter part of this passage is due to 
Burges. Wunder can make nothing of it. B. 

2 xivO) race, i. e. Trapairovf.iai. Gratia est. Idem enim valet alvCn> 
ssepius in coUoquendo, quod alias Grsece dicitur koKwq txii. J.,at. bc7ugne, 
ut Hor. Epist. I. vii. 62. Utuntur nimirum hac formula, si quis bene- 
ficium sibi oblatum recusat. Frequentatum hoc sensu Grsecis t-awib, 
of. Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. v. 511, et Valken. ad Euripid. Phoeniss, 
p. 150. Barby. The reader may choose between this and the trans- 
latinn as it stands, but he must observe that /cat follows immediately. Tr. 
— See Wunder. B. 



318 PHILOCTETES. 891—917. 

bad smell ere there be need, for the trouble on board ship in 
sailing in company with me is enough for them. 

Ne. It shall be so ; but do thou both stand up and thyself 
hold by me. 

Ph. Courage, my wonted custom, look you, will set me 
upright. 

Ne. Heavens! and what next am I to do? 

Ph. What is it, my son? To what conclusion, I wonder, 
hast thou come in thy thought? 

Ne. I know not whither I ought to turn my perplexed 
"w^ords. 

Ph. But for what art thou at a loss? say not thus, my son. 

Ne. Nay, even now am I involved in this difficulty. 

Ph. Surely inconvenience arising from my disease has not 
dissuaded thee from any longer taking me on board ship? 

Ne. Everything is inconvenient, when one having aban- 
doned his own nature, does what befits him not'. 

Ph. Nay, but thou at least are neither doing nor saying 
aught unworthy of thy sire, in aiding a brave man. 

Ne. I shall show myself a villain: 'tis at this I am all 
along aggrieved. 

Ph. Nay, surely not, at least in what thou doest : but at 
what thou sayest, I shudder. 

Ne. O Jove, what shall I do? shall I twice be detected a 
villain, both in concealing what I ought not, and uttering 
words the most scandalous? 

Ph. This man, unless I am wrong in judgment, methinks 
will make hence his voyage, having betrayed and abandoned 
me. 

Ne. Abandoned thee? — not I indeed: but lest I rather 
convey thee to thy grief, 'tis that all the while is torturing 
me. 

Ph. What canst thou mean, my son? for I comprehend 
not. 

Ne. I will hide nothing from thee. Thou must sail to 
Troy, to the Greeks and the Atridae's host. 

Ph. Aks ! what hast thou said? 

^ This observation of Neoptolemus is in unison with Achilles' celebrated 
declaration : — 

Who dare think one thing, and another tell. 

My heart detests him as the gates of bell. Pope's II. IX. 142. 



917—941. PHILOCTETES. 319 

Ne. Groan not, ere thou have learnt all. 

Ph. 'What must that lesson be ? what canst thou purpose 
to do to me ? 

Ne. First to rescue thee from this misery', and then to go 
and with thee sack the Trojan plains. 

Ph. And dost thou really think to do this? 

Xe. Overwhelming necessity in this commands, and be not 
thou angered to hear it. 

Ph. Ah, wTetched, I am undone, betrayed! AMiat hast 
thou done to me, stranger? Give me quickly back my bow 
and arrows. 

Ne. Nay, it cannot be, for both justice and interest induce 
me to obey those in power. 

Ph. Thou fire^! thou utter horror! thou most detestable 
masterpiece of fearful villany, how hast thou used me, how 
deceived me ! and dost thou not, wretch, blush to look on 
me, thy suppliant, thy beggar? Thou hast bereft me of life, 
having gotten my weapons. Give them back, I implore thee, 
I conjiu*e thee, give them back, my son ; by the gods of thy 
forefathers rob me not of my livelihood. Ah miserable me ! 
Nay, no longer does he even speak to me^, but thus looks 
behind him, as though his restoring them were hopeless. Ye 
harbours^, ye promontories, ye haunts of the mountain beasts, 
ye precipitous crags, to you I speak this, for I know none else 
to whom I might : I bewail to you, my wonted audience, the 
deeds, how cruel, that the son of Achilles hath done to me : 
having sworn to cany me home from hence, he is taking me 

^ The scholiast takes this for a vile pun on the name Pyrrhus ; and 
Bnimoy, following him, has paraphrased it, " rage digne de ton nom." 
But independently of the absurdity attendant on this, it is not the name 
which Neoptolemus himself gives to Philoctetes in his account of his 
voyage, v. 241. 

2 Num fletu ingemuit nostro ? num lumina flexit .'' 

Num lachrvmas victus dedit, aut miseratus amantem est? 

^n. IV. 369. 
2 This is imitated from the sublime address of Prometheus in ^schylus, 

"Q tiog ai6i]p . Lord Byron has taken his idea from one, perhaps 

both of these, in his Doge of Venice : — 

I speak to time, and to eternity, 
Whereof I grow a port on, not to man: 
Ye elements, in which to be resolved 
I hasten, let my voice be as a spirit 
Upon you. 



S20 I'HILOCTETES. 942—973, 

to Troy ; and having proffered his right hand\ he has taken 
and detains my bow and arrows, arms sacred to Jove-born 
Hercules, and wills to display them to the Greeks. As if he 
had captured a strong man, he carries me off by force, and 
know^s not that he slayeth a corpse, and the shadow of a 
vapour, an empty phantom. For never could he have taken 
me at least while possessed of strength, since he had not even 
thus conditioned, except by treachery. But now I wretched 
have been deceived. What can I do ? But give them back, 
and now, even yet, be thine own self^? What sayest thou? 
Thou art silent. Unhappy me ! I am no more. O form of 
the rock with double front, again I return back into thee un- 
armed, bereft of the means of sustenance; thus forlorn in 
this cavern shall I wither away, striking down nor winged 
bird nor mountain-prowling beast with these mine arrows: 
but I myself, unhappy man, being dead shall furnish a ban- 
quet to those whereon I fed', and what I made my prey before 
will make me theirs now, and I miserable shall make atone- 
ment with death a ransom for death, at the hand of one that 
seemeth to know no guile. Mayest thou not yet be accursed, 
ere I have learnt if yet again thou wilt transfer thy opinion ; 
but if not, an evil death be thine. 

Ch. What shall we do? On thee now rests both our sail- 
ing, O king, and our acceding to these his words. 

Ne. On me indeed a powerful pity for this man hath fallen, 
not now first, but long ago. 

Ph. My son, by the gods, pity me, and permit not mor- 
tals' reproach against thyself, having deceived me. 

Ne. Ah me ! what shall I do ? O had I never left Scyros ! 
so grieved am I at this present matter. 

Ph. Thou art not wicked, but thou seemest to come with 
bad instructions from the wicked. But now, having . given 
them to others, to whom it is fair, sail hence, having given 
me up my arms. 

^ " Struve banc vocem cum 4%£i jungendum censet, ut sensus sit, 
porro jyalam nunc tenet, dexfra extensa, arcum et sagittas meas, sacras 
Ulas Herculis, Jovisfilii, quce olim erant. Admodum dure! irponQsvai 
;^£7pa, id. q. supra v. 813. sulSdWeiv ^apa." Barby. 

2 Vid. Aristopb. Vesp. 642, (pvaiv is understood. 

2 " This is a strange remark of Pbiloctetes. So he really expected to 
be the food of those he had already devoured!" Burges. Wunder would 
read d<p' wv, and take s(pep(36uT)v in the middle, not the passive sense. B. 



974—990. PHILOCTETES. 321 

Ne. AVhat are we to do, my mates? 

Ul. O most vile of men*, what doest thou ? Wilt thou 
not return, having left these weapons to me ? 
' Ph. Ah me ! what man is this ? Do I indeed then hear 
Ulvsses ? 

tlL. Ulysses, be assured, in me at least on whom thou 
lookest. 

Ph. Alas ! I am bought and sold, I am undone. It was 
then of course he that ensnared me, and despoiled me of 
my arms. 

Ul. 'Twas P, be well aevsiured, and none other ; I confess 
all this. 

Ph. Restore, let go, my son, mine archer-arms. 

Ul. This indeed shall he never do, even though he would; 
but thou too must go with them, or these will convey thee 
by force. 

Ph. Me, thou vilest of the ^ile, and most audacious, shall 
these take by force. 

Ul. Unless thou crawl hence voluntarily. 

Ph. O Lemnian land, and thou blaze of all-swaying fire 
Vulcan-framed, is this then to be borne, that he from thy 
realms shall carry me off by force ? 

Ul. Jove it is', that thou mayest know it, Jove, the ruler 
of this land, Jove who hath determined this ; but I am his 
minister. 



1 As Neoptolemus is in the act of giving back tlie arms to Philoctetes, 
Ulysses rushes on the stage. 

^ Ulysses, knowing the enmity which Philoctetes bore to him, and 
returning it with equal resentment, jhinks his triumph incomplete unless 
he tells him that he did it. See Arist. Rhet. B. II. c. 3, and the Oxford 
translator's Note, p. 119. 

2 *' Jovem in insula Lemno natum, ibi deum patrium fuisse satis notum 
est." Barby. Man has never altered; and when the heathen crew of 
Olympus could no longer protect craft or vice, the superstition of a suc- 
ceeding age made itself gods of all the host of heaven. On this there are 
some forcible remarks in Lear; "This is the excellent foppery of the 
world ! that, when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our be- 
haviour) we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: 
as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, 
thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance ; drunkards, liars, and 
adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that 
We are evil in, by a divine thrusting on." Act I. sc. 2. 

Y 



322 PHILOCTETES. 991—1026. 

Ph. Thou abhorrence, what lies dost thou coin to utter ! 
Thou alleging gods in pretence, makest those gods liars. 

Ul. Not so, but true. The journey, however, must be 
taken. 

Ph. I say it shall not. 

Ul. I say it shall. Thou must obey m this. 

Ph. Unhappy me ! my father ther clearly begat me as a 
slave, and not free. 

Ul. Not so, but on a par with the mightiest, with whom 
thou needs must capture Troy, and by violence raze it to the 
ground. 

Ph. No, never, not even were I doomed to suffer every 
evil, while I have this steep foundation of the island. 

Ul. What then dost thou purpose to do ? 

Ph. This mine head forthwith will I bathe in blood, having 
leapt from a rock above on one below. 

Ul. Lay hold on him, whatever ye do, nor be this in his 
power. 

Ph. O hands, what sufferings are yours in the lack of your 
loved bowstring, entrammeled by this man ! thou that 
thinkest nothing sound or liberal, how hast thou stolen upon 
me, how hast thou hunted me down! having used as thy 
stalking-horse this boy unknown to me, unworthy of thee, 
but of me most worthy, who knew nothing but to execute 
what had been enjoined him. Nay, even now he shows that 
he bears sorrowfully the deeds whereby he erred and whereby 
I suffered. But 'twas thine evil spirit ever looking forth 
from its lair, that well foretaught him, however by nature 
indisposed as by inclination, to be shrewd in wickedness. 
And now, wretch, thou thinkest to bind and carry me from 
this shore, on which thou didst expose me, friendless, forlorn, 
homeless, among the living a corpse. Ah ! mayest thou perish ; 
and on thee have I often imprecated this, but in vain, for the 
gods allot me nought of pleasure. Thou livest in exultation ; 
while I on the contrary have this to grieve me, that I mi- 
serable live consorted with many woes, scoffed at by thee and 
the two generals the sons of Mreus, for whom thou trucklest 
to this office. And yet thou bound by stratagem and com- 
pulsion^ sailedst with them ; while me, all-unhappy me, that 

^ Although it was by the advice of Ulysses that Tyndarus had imposed 
ihe celebrated oath to defend Helen on her suitors, yet he himself was so 



1027—1051. PHILOCTETES. 323 

with my seven^ ships under my command was a willing 
voyager, they cast away nnhonoured, as thou assertest, while 
they charge thee^ And now why take ye me ? Why carry 
me away ? For what cause ? Me, that am as nothing, and 
long since have been dead to you ? How, O most hated of 
the gods, am I not now lame and noisome to thee ? How 
is it possible, with me on board, to burn sacrifices to the 
gods ? How any longer to make libations ? for this was 
thy pretence to cast me out. Destruction on ye ! And des- 
truction shall, for that ye have injured me, if the gods care 
for justice. And I am sure at least that they do care ; since 
ye had never sailed on this expedition for such a wretch as 
I am, had not a heaven-sent poignancy of need for me urged 
you forwards. But my father-land, and ye gods that look 
upon us, avenge, at least one day after a time, avenge me on 
all of them, if ye have any pity for me : since piteously do 
I live, yet could I but see them destroyed, I should think I 
had escaped my disease. 

Ch. Stern is the stranger, and stern is this his speech that 
he hath uttered, Ulysses, not at all yielding to his sorrows'. 

Ul. Much could I say in answer to this man's words, 
would time permit ; but now I am strong in this one argu- 
ment. Where there is need of plans such as these, such am 
I ; and where the decision is of just and upright characters, 
you could not meet with any one more pious than myself*. I 

unwilling to abide by that oath, that he pretended to be insane, and 
ploughed the sea-shore, sowing it with salt. This artitice was discovered 
by Palamedes, who placed the infant Teleraachus before the plough, and 
Ulysses turned it immediately from the furrow. "What requital the un- 
fortunate son of Belus got for this is told in the second book of Virgil. It 
is to Ulysses' feigned madness, however, that Philoctetes here alludes. 

^ Brunck and Erfurdt have improperly inserted a stop before ewra., as if 
Philoctetes boasted in the number of his vessels, which would have been 
an absurdity in him on this occasion, his rival Ulysses having sailed with 
twelve. Herra. This is not quite convincing : Philoctetes might natu- 
rally look for more consideration as commander of a squadron, than as an 
adventurer who went single-handed, without meaning to institute this com- 
parison between himself and Ulysses ; and the former might be indicated 
by Brunck 's punctuation as well as the latter. 

2 Burges would read crv, i. e., wq Se tcpaaav KtXvoi, av tjSaXeg. B. 

3 Cf. Antig. 471. StjXoI to yevvruj,' d)[x.6v t^ uj/xov TraTpog Tj}(, Traiiog, 
HKuv d' ovK kTriffTarai Ka/coTg. B, 

* See note on v. 81. 

Y 2 



324 PHILOCTETES, l!aS2~1078. 

am naturally desirous to prevail at least, in every point, except 
against thee^ ; but now to thee at least I will willingly con- 
cede. Yes, let him go, nor hold him any longer ; leave him 
to stay. We have no additional need of thee, at least while 
we possess these arms, since we have Teucer with us, ac- 
quainted with this science, and me, who think that I could 
master these, and aim them aright with mine hand in no wise 
worse than thou*. What want we then of thee? Adieu, 
and pace Lemnos^ : but let us be gone ; and haply thy prize 
may win me that honour which thou shouldst have had. 

Ph. Ah me, what shall I do, ill-fated ? Shalt thou, adorned 
with my anns, present thyself t.^ the Greeks ? 

Ul. Make me no reply, no>. « word, since I am now 
going. 

Ph. Seed of Achilles, and shall I no longer be addressed 
by thy voice* either, but wilt thou thus be gone)' 

Ul. Go thou, nor look on him, though thou art generous, 
that thou ruin not our fortune. 

Ph. And shall I now, my guests, be thus forlorn aban- 
doned by you, and will ye not pity me ? 

Ch. This youth is our vessel's commander ; whatsoever he 
shall say to thee, that do we also speak to thee. 

Ne. I shall indeed hear myself reproached by this man 
with being by nature over-pitifuP ; yet tarry, if he wish it, 
thus much time, until the mariners shall have got ready tJiat 
which was brought ashore, and we shall have prayed to the 
gods^. And he meanwhile may haply, adopt sentiments more 

^ Construendum potius, t<l>vv viKq,v xpy'^wv, soleo ego vincere, uM volo. 
Herm. 

2 In the Odyssey, 'howev.er, Ulysses confesses his inferiority, though he 
claims praise for this science:: — 

Alone superior in the field of Troy 
'Great PMloctetes taught the shaft to fly. 

B. VIII. V. 251. 
Hermann points out the modesty with which Ulysses here speaks of 
himself after Teucer. The change of the negative he considers to mark a 
doubt, and yet an affirmative : neque hercle Us collineaturus. 

3 Or this may be rendered, " stalk in Lemnos and welcome." 

4 ^ov (pujvfje here is governed by clttS understood. 

5 nXf wf ttXewv, whence irXtiujv, Attic for ttXsoq TrXdog : in the same 
dialect shortly after X(^'w for Xojova a Xwtwv, and vw for vwt. 

^ Such was uniformly the Greek custom : 'Eireidi] de ai vijeg TrXripeig 
f/aav, Kal iceKiiTo tjdij baa tfieXXov dvd^iaOai, r^ [xev aakinyyi ciwtd; 



\ 



1079—1119*. PKILOCTETEa 325 

to our advantage : lot us two, however, hasten hence, and be 
ye quick in your departure, when we shall summon you. 

Ph. O cavity of the hollow rock, alike warm and icy-cold, 
how am I then, wretch that I am, doomed never hereafter to 
quit thee ! no, e'en in death thou wilt be my shelter. O me, 
woe is me ! abode, wretched abode, most full of my sor- 
rows, what again will ever be my daily sustenance ? What 
hope administering to my hunger shall I hapless ever obtain ? 
O that the fugitive birds* with shrill-toned whizzings of their 
wings would take me aloft in air ! for I can endure no 
longer. 

Ch. ITiou, even thou, mark me, hast decreed it to thyself, 
ill-fated man : from no other and higher quarter art thou 
visited with this misfortune*^; when at least, being in thy 
power to be wise, thou hast chosen to adopt the worse fate for 
the better. 

Ph. Ah hapless, hapless I, then, and marred by trouble, 
who now henceforth, wretch that I am, dwelling in future 
with no human being, here shall perish, alas ! alas ! no longer 
bringing home food, nor possessing it by means of my winged 
arrows and with my powerful hands : no, the unsuspected 
and dissembled words of a crafty mind stole upon me guile- 
fully : but O could I but see him, the wretch that has devised 
all this, for as long a time doomed to my afflictions ! 

Ch. Destiny from heaven, and no treachery at my hands 
at least, possessed thee thus ; keep back then thy curse, thine 



virs(Tr)iJidv9i], svxag ds rag vofii^ofiavag 7rp6 Ttjg a.vay(x)yr}g, ov Kara vavv 
f.Kd(TTr]V, ^viiTTavreg 8e vtto KrjpvKog, sttoiovvto, Kparfjpdg re Kepaaavrtg 
Trap' uTvav to (TTpdrevfia, Kai eKTTOJfJiatn xpvtroit,- ts kul dpyvpoTg o'i ts 
C7ri/3arai kul oi dpxovTsg (rTrevSovreg. Thuc. VI. 32. 

^ Of this passage there are many various readings. Aldus has it tttio- 
KdSsg, Gedike TrXwrdSeg, Brunck gives the other conjectures of the scholia. 
But Barby has adopted Vossius' correction, Myth. Bucfi. v. i. p. 211. who 
altera it to TTTcoddeg from the old word, tttmuv, TiTTTeiv. Vossius, how- 
ever, understands it to allude to the Harpies, and their pouncing stoop. 
Hermann reads eOi for tWe, which mends both the metre and the sense. 
With justice he remarks that the verb Trrwcro-w could not be applied to 
ravenous birds of prey, but rather to cowering timorous animals of every 
description. Tr. There seems no hope of this passage. B. 

* Hermann reads, 

KovK dXXodeVf 
dXX.' ivex^*- T^X^ '^^' """^ fid^ovo^. sc. 9tov, 



326 PH1L0CTETE& 1120— 1146. 

abhorred, ill-omened curse, for others. For I too am caring 
for this, that thou spurn not my kindness. 

Ph. Ah me ! me ! And somewhere, seated on the shore of the 
hoary main, he laughs at me, wielding in his hand the support 
of me unhappy, which none ever carried besides. O my 
loved bow, O thou from friendly hands wrested by violence, 
full surely, if thou hast any feelings, t^ou lookest with pity 
on me thus wretched, never again hereafter to use thee, as 
the prize-gift from Hercules^. No, by change of masters art 
thou handled by an artful man, witnessing his base deceits, 
and the detestable and loathed villain causing to dawn crimes 
on crimes innumerable, all of evil that Ulysses, hath plotted 
against me. 

Ch. Surely it is a man's part to call that which is useful, 
just ; and not to vent out the envious displeasure of his tongue 
at one who has so called it^. He, having been appointed one 
out of many, by the instructions of this Ulysses, accom- 
plished for his friends a public service. 

Ph. winged prey, and tribes of fierce wild beasts^ 

' Quaecunque vox hunc locum obtinuerit, designatur baud dubie Phi- 
lootetes. 'AtOXov retinendum esse non dixerim, licet colorem ei conciliet 

Horatianum illud, accedes opera agro nona Sabino fuit quidem 

cum legendum putarem tov 'H/oaKXsi avvaiQXov vel ofideOXov. Priorem 
vocem habet Oppianus, Cyneg. I. 195. Sad ea lectio hoc habet incom- 
modi, quod Philoctetem Herculis comitem et in laboribus adjutorem faciat, 
quod neseio an Veterum quisquam tradiderit. Nihil enim aliud memorant 
Mythologi, nisi Herculis rogum funebrem, reliquis detrectantibus, ab 
ipso accensum fuisse. Hyginus, fab. 36. Apollodorus, Lib. II. 7. Diod. 
Sic. IV. 38. Musgrave. He says ojoe ovk trt x^fl^ontvov, because he 
has by so great treachery been deprived of its use. To which words he 
subjoins the accusative 'IlpaicXetov aQXov by a usage very common to the 
Greeks, meaning that the use of the bow had been given to him by Her- 
cules as a reward, which may be briefly expressed: ita me non amplius 
ie pro prcemio ab Hercule accepto tisurum. Matthiae has given examples 
of this construction in his Gr. Gr. § 432. 3. Herm. 

2 The translator had in the former edition adopted H. Stephens' opinion; 
but the sense which Hermann has given makes the passage so much more 
applicable to the wrath of Philoctetes, and the general tone of Greek 
jaorality, that he could not hesitate to adopt it. AiKaia fiev airb ttiq 'iariQ 
dvdyKr]Q Koivirai, Sward Si oi TrpovxovTsg Trpdacrovcn, kuI oi daBevtXs 
cvyx(^pov<nv. Thuc. 5. 89. See the whole conference. 

3 So the Lexica gave it, taking the idea from the exultation expressed in 
the eyes of wild beasts when about to seize on their prey. Vid. Horn. 
Od. II. 610. Tb.— Cf. LiddeU, s. v. xapoTrog. B. 






1147—1190. PHILOCTETES. SSfT 

which prowling o'er the hills this place nourishes ; no longer 
do ye by your flight di-aw me towards you from my abode, 
for 1 have not in my hands the former defence of my arrows 
any longer, wretched that I am ! no, this spot freely tenanted 
bv vou, no longer a source of fear. Approach, now is it 
fitting that ye glut your mouths in mutual slaughter, with my 
livid flesh to your pleasui-e, for life I instantly shall quit : 
since fi'om what source will come my livelihood ? who is there 
thus fed on air, no longer, no longer master of aught that the 
life-bestowing^ earth supplies. 

Ch. In the gods' name, if aught thou respect a guest that 
is come to thee in aU good will, come thou to him. But be 
sure, most sure that it is for thine own sake*, to evade this 
evil fate : for lamentable is it to support, and unschooled to 
bear the countless pain wherewith it consorts. 

Ph. Again, again hast thou hinted' at my old affiction, 
the best of all that have hitherto set foot on this spot, why 
hast thou destroyed me ? What hast thou done to me ? 

Ch. Why sayest tttou this ? 

Ph. In case thou expectestto carry me to the land of Troy 
I detest. 

Ch. I do, for this I conceive the best. 

Ph. Now this moment quit me. 

Ch. Friendly, ay friendly is this thy bidding to me, and I 
am well inclined to perform it. Let us go, let us go to our 
ship whereunto we have been bidden. 

Ph. Go not, by Jove of curses, I implore. 

Ch, Be moderate. 

Ph. Strangers, tarry, in the gods' name. 

Ch. AMiat clamourest thou ? 

Ph. Alas ! alas ! fate, fate ! I miserable am imdone. O 
foot, foot, what shall I do with thee any longer in life hence- 
forth, wretched that I am? Strangers, come ye back my 
'visitors again. 

^ ^sch. apud Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1357, as restored by critics, 
'Ivdxov 'Apyeiov Trorafiov Traialv (SioSujpoig. See Dindorf, fragm. ^Esch. 
159. ^eiowpog is a more common word, especially iu Hesiod, but Liddell 
is against a cognate etymology from ^yv. B. 

- This is more than ooi implies. An adjective or finite verb is want- 
ing. B. 

3 Cf. Antig. 857. B. 



328 PHILOCrElES. 1191—1218. 

Ch. To do what with purpose differing from those before, 
of which thou didst before show thyself. 

Ph. It is not, look you, fair cause for indignation that a 
man languishing under tempestuous pain should prate even 
of his mind. 

Ch. Go now, wretched man, as we desire thee. 

Ph. Never, never, know this for certain ; not even if the 
fiery lord of lightning come to blast me with the flashes of 
his thunderbolts^ Perish Troy, and all they beneath it, as 
many as had the heart to spurn this my foot's limb. But, 
strangers, one prayer, at least one, accord me. 

Ch. What is this thou wilt utter? 

Ph. Convey to me a sword, if from any place ye can, or 
an axe, or some one weapon. 

Ch. To do what possible work? 

Ph. To lop off with my hand mine whole head and my 
limbs*. On slaughter\ slaughter, is now my mind. 

Ch. Why should it be ? 

Ph. To go search for my father. • 

Ch. Whither on earth ? 

Ph. Into Hades, for in the light at least he is no longer*. 
city, native city, how might I look on thee, wretched man 
as I am, I, that having quitted thy sacred waters^, went to 
assist the hated Greeks, and now am nought ! 

Ch. I indeed even now long since had been walking near 



^ Musgrave admits into his text the old reading, f3povTaTg avraiQ, and in 
his note rejects the emendation of Valckenaer (which Brunck has followed) 
(ipovrag avpaig, which he defends on the authority of Euripides, as 
quoted by Plutarch, Bpovrrjg irvivix avaiyiov atXeas, of Vrrgil. Mn. II. 
649. Fulminis afflavit ventis, and Statins Theb. V, 586, Moti tamen 
aura cucurrii Fulminis. But he adds, " Sed videndum ne aura fulfmnis 
sit innoxium fulminis genus, minimeque adeo huic loco conveniens ; deinde 
ne PpovToig avraig sit vero Julmine, ipsissimo fuhnine." Vol. ii. 
p. 179. 

2 This reminds us of Virgil's Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus : it 
is a figure well suited to express the eagerness of desperation. The fate 
designed for himself by Philoctetes, was actually that of Cleomenes, to 
whom, as in his latter days a bitter enemy to Athens and her liberties, the 
poet might possibly allude. 

^ ^ovq,, Schol. Oavaria, Qavarov iTTLOvfieX. 

■* For the reasons of this opinionj see v. 493, 

^ Spercheius, 



1219—1241. PHILOCTETES. 82'9 

my vessel, for thee, had we not perceived Ulysses walking 
close by, and the son of Achilles coming towards us. 

Ul. Wilt thou not say \^fo Neoptolemus] wherefore again 
thou stealest on this way, turning backwards thus quickly 
and with earnestness ? 

Ne. To atone* for all the errors I have heretofore com- 
mitted. 

Ul. Thou speakest wonders at least. But what was the 
error ? 

Ne. That wherein having been persuaded by thee aad the 
M'hole united host 

Uii. What manner of deed hast thou done, of those that 
became thee not ? 

Ne. Having by base deceits and treachery entrapped a 
man. 

Ue. What man? Ah me — thou surely dost not purpose 
aught anew ? 

Ne, Nothing new ; but to the son of Poias 

Ue. What wilt thou do ? How does a fear creep upon me !• 

Ne. From whom in fact I took these weapons, back again — 

Ul. Jove ! what wilt thou say ? Thou surely hast no 
thought to give them him ? 

Ne. Yes, for I got and have them basely and not with 
justice. 

Ul. By the gods, whether now sayest thou all this in 
mockery ^ 

Ne. If it be mockery to speak the truth, 

Ul. What sayest thou, son of Achilles'^ ? What word hast 
thou uttered ! 

Ne. Wouldst thou that twice and thrice I reiterate the 
same words ? 

Ul. Nay, not once even could I have mshed to hear 
them. 

Ne. Be now well assured of it : thou hast heard all I have 
to say. 

Ul. There i» one, there is, that shall prevent thy executing 
it. 

1 Cf. Antig. 1112. B, 

2 This naturally expresses the unvrillingness of Ufysses tof believe what 
would so completely frustrate his i)lans. A similar scene occurs in Othello, 
where Emilia receives the first account of her husband's villany. 



330 PIIILOCTETES. 1242—1260. 

Ne. What sayest thou ? Who is there shall hinder me 
in this ? 

Ul. The combined people of the Greeks, and among them I. 

Ne. a wise man born, thou utterest no wisdom. 

Ul. And thou neither now speakest nor are about to act 
wisely. 

Ne. Nay, but if this be just, 'tis better than wisdom. 

Ul. And how just, to restore again these arms which by 
my counsels thou gottest? 

Ne. Having failed with a disgraceful fault, I will endeavour 
to retrieve it. 

Ul. And acting thus, fearest thou not the Greek army ? 

Ne. With justice on my side I fear not thy terrors. 

Ul. Nor am I persuaded by thine hand to act, mark me*. 

Ne. Then not with the Trojans, but with thee wiU we 
battle. 

Ul. Be what must be. 

Ne. Seest thou my right hand grasping my sword's hilt ? 

Ul. Nay, thou shalt see me too doing the same, and no 
longer about to do it*, however, I will leave thee alone, but 
will go and tell this to the assembled host, which will chastise 
thee. 

Ne. Thou hast acted temperately', and if thus thou thinkest 
on aU the rest, haply thou may est keep thy foot out of 

^ Hermann gives the latter of these lines to Ulysses, and thenceforward 
makes an exchange of persons to the passage, "Nay, thou shalt," etc., 
which he joins with that beginning "However," etc. The line dXk' ovcs, 
K. T.\. he translates quod ad effectionem attinet, tuce manui non cedam ; 
and observes that oh fiuQofiai for ovk ia> admits an infinitive after it to 
express the action not of the person forbidding, but of the person for- 
bidden. Tr. — I have followed Hermann, with Dindorf. B. 

2 Herman giving the preceding line and half also to Ulysses, says " Quod 
recte factum esse vel particula kuitoi, quae est sese a consilio capto revo- 
cantis, ostendere poterat." He adds that the propriety of the two 
characters favours this arrangement. 

^ Something similar is the reproach of Brutus to Antony in Julius 
Caesar : — 

For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony, 
And, very wisely, threat before you sting. 
And the observation of Antony just preceding it will bear comparison with 
V. 1264:— 

In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words : 
Witness the hole you made in Caesar's heart. 
Crying, Long live ! Hail, Caesar 1 



mm^mUM 



1261—1287. PHILOCTETES. 331 

troubles. But do thou, son of Poias, I mean Philoctetes, come 
forth, having quitted this thy rocky dwelling. 

Ph. What clamorous disturbance is again raised by my 
cavern ? Why call ye me forth ? desirous of what matter, 
strangers ? Ah me^, the matter ye desii*e is evil. Ye surely 
are here to heap a heavier woe upon my woes ? 

Ne. Courage. But hear the words I come bringing with me. 

Ph. I am alarmed: for before also I fared but badly from 
fair words, persuaded by thy advice. 

Ne. Is there then no place left for repentance? 

Ph. Such wert thou in words, even when thou didst steal 
mine arrows, trusty, yet in private baneful. 

Ne. But fear not that I am at all such now : I would how^- 
ever hear from thee whether thy purpose be to persist in 
tarrying here, or to sail with us. 

Ph. Have done, speak no farther, for in vain will all that 
thou shalt say be uttered. 

Ne. Art thou thus resolved ? 

Ph. Ay, and be sure yet more so than I express. 

Ne. Nay, I indeed could have wished thou hadst been in- 
duced by my words ; but if I chance to say nought to purpose, 
I have done. 

Ph. Good, for thou wilt say all in vain, since never wilt 
thou gain my friendly thought^; thou at least that hast 
taken by craft and reft me of my support, and then comest 
and exhortest me, thou most infamous son of a father most 
famous. Destruction be upon ye; the Atridae especially, 
then Laertes' son and thee. 

Ne. Cm-se no farther, but accept from my hand these 
missiles. 

The whole scene is well accordant with Ulysses' spirit, and his guardian's 
sentiments ; for Minerva appears to have allowed the utmost licence of 
tongue, but to have been very adverse to bloody consequences. Vid. 11. 1. 
^ This is said by Philoctetes on first seeing Neoptolemus, the preceding 
words are spoken within his cave. 

^ Came he right now to sing a raven's note. 

Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers, 
And thinks he that the chirping of a wren. 
By crying comfort from a hollow breast. 
Can chase away the first conceived sound.' 
Hide not thy poison with such sugar'd words. 

Second Part of rienry "VI., act 3, so. 2. 



332 PHILOCTETES. 1289—1310. 

Ph. How sayest thou ; And am I not a second time 
deceived? 

Ne. No. I swear by the highest reverence of holy Jupiter. 

Ph. O thou that hast spoken words most dear, if with 
truth thou speakest ! 

Ne. The fact shall be here manifest. But put forth thy 
right hand, and possess thee of thine arms. 

Ul. But I for my part protest against this, as^ the gods 
witness for me, in behalf af both the Atridae and the army in 
common. 

Ph. My son, whose voice ? — I surely heard not Ulysses ? 

Ul. Be sure thou didst : and at all events thou seest him 
at hand, who will convey thee hence by force to the Trojan 
plains, whether the son of Achilles will it, or will it not. 

Ph. But by no means with impunity, if this arrow be sent 
straight^. 

Ne. Ah! ah! by no means. Do not, by the gods, let go 
thy dart. 

Ph. Let go, by the gods, my hand, my dearest son. 

Ne. I cannot let it go. 

Ph. Alas, why hast thou debarred me from slaying with 
mine arrows a foeman and detested wretch ? 

Ne. This were honourable neither for me nor thee. 

Ph. Well, but be assured of this much at least, that those 
chieftains of the host, those mouth-pieces of lying to the 
Ai'give army, are very cowards for the battle, but bold enough 
in words. 

Ne. Be it so. Thou art master of thy weapons, and thou 
hast no cause for resentment or complaint against me. 

Ph. I allow it ; thou hast, my son, displayed the nature 

^ The wg could not liere have been omitted, since then the appeal 
would have respected the mere prohibition, now it has respect to that 
prohibition's being in behalf of the common cause. Herm. 

2 Fenelon, in his Telemachus, (as Francklin remarks,) has made a 
variation from this account, for an obvious reason, and indeed the same 
which has made him elsewhere suppress some particulars of Ulysses' 
conduct, and give a new colouring to others; the wish to make that chief 
worthy of Minerva's protection. He supposes that Ulysses made signs 
to Pyrrhus to restore the weapons, and that Philoctetes, in his first im- 
pulse of revenge and unwillingness to owe anything to so detested an 
enemy, ungratefully prepared to turn his gift to his destruction. This, 
however is, from the character of the parties, most unnatural. 



1311— ia35. PHILOCTETES. 333 

whence thou didst spring : not from Sisyplms^ as father, but 
from Achilles, who both among the living had the noblest 
character, and now of the dead^. 

Ne. I was gratified to hear thee lauding both my father, 
and myself; but what I wish to obtain from thee listen. The 
misfortunes that are sent by the gods it is necessary for men 
to endure ; but as many as are mvolved in voluntary e\ils^, 
as thou in fact art, on these it is not just for any one to bestow 
either pardon or pity. But thou art become savage, and both 
refusest to take a partner in thy councils, and if any one 
speaking out of good will advise thee, thou detestest him, 
accounting him an enemy, and that a bitter one. Yet still 
will I speak, and I invoke Jove the lord of oaths ; know thou 
this also, and grave it on thy mind within. For thou art dis- 
tempered with this pain by divine ordinance, having di*awn 
near imto the guardian of Chryse, that hidden sei-pent, that there 
protecting watches o"er the uncovered fane* : and know that 
a release from this thy grievous malady may never come 
about whilst yonder smi shall in this quarter rise, and in that 
in tm-n set again, until thou thyself come willingly to the 
Trojan plains, and happening on thy cure fr-om the sons of. 
-^sculapius that are with us^, mayest be alleviated in this 
thy disease: and show thyself the destroyer of Pergamus 
with these weapons, and in union with me. But how I know 

^ A sneer at Ulysses. B. 

2 Ulysses himself salutes Achilles as such in his interview with him in 
Hades. Od. 11. 484. It is curious ito observe, however^ how different 
an effect these two compliments have on the young heir and his deceased 
father, which latter, in his answer, perfectly agrees with the old proverb, 
*' A living dog is better than a dead lion." 

^ See Diodotus' oration in the third bock of Th^icydides', and Aristotle 
on voluntary and involuntary actions. 

^ From the mildness of the chraate in Greece, many of the public 
buildings were left uncovered; .and it is not yet fully agreed among the 
learned that the Parthenon was not hypaethral. Serpents were placed 
constantly by the ancients to guard treasures, as was most probably that 
which had a public maintenance in the building behind the Parthenon, 
which was the public treasury. Hence perhaps Aristophanes' idea of the 
aiding Plutus by ^sculapius. 

^ Toup proposes to read 'AaKXrjTriuJv, medicorum, which Bruij-'k 
rejects, without sufficient regard to what is afterwards said by Hercules, 
V. 1432. Quintus Calabar states that Philoctetes was healed by Poda- 
lirius, Machaon having fallen ; which Propertius contradicts, L. II. E. i. 
V. 59. 

Tarda Philoctetse sanavit crura Machaon. 



334 rtliLOCTETES. 1336—1365. 

that this must be so, I will tell thee. For we have a man a 
prisoner from Troy, Helenus, the first of seers, who says 
plainly, that all this is doomed to take place : and yet more 
in addition to this, that Troy must of necessity be utterly 
taken in the present summer ; or he voluntarily surrenders 
himself to us to slay, if in saying this he shall have falsified. 
Since then thou knowest this, yield to us willingly. For 
noble is the acquisition, that alone having been judged the 
bravest of Greeks, thou in the first place fall under healing 
hands ; and then having taken Troy, fertile in gi'oans, thou 
gain the most transcendent renown. 

Ph. hateful existence, why then detainest thou me any 
longer possessed of sight above, and hast not suffered me to 
descend to Pluto's home ? Ah me ! what shall I do ? How 
shall I disobey the advice of this man, who being my well- 
wisher has admonished me ! But must I then yield } Then 
how shall I come forth into light, wretched I, having so 
acted ? By whom accosted ? How, O ye orbs^ that witness 
all these injuries befalling me, how wiU ye endure through 
this, that I join the sons of Atreus, who have destroyed me ? 
How, with the all-accursed son of Laertes? For it is not 
the sorrow of things past that gnaws me, but I fancy I fore- 
see what I am doomed yet to suffer from them. For to 
whomsoever the judgment shall have become mother of 
evil, it trains up everything else to become evil. And I 
for my part am astonished at thee in this ! for thou 
oughtest neither thyself ever again to return to Troy, and 
to keep me too from it ; men at least that have insulted thee, 
spoiling thee of thy father's prize*. And' then thou must go 

Here again, as at v. 815, Brunck differs from several of the commen- 
tators. Gedike and Camerarius understand it of his eyes, as at v. 1270, 
of (Edipus Tyrannus : 

e7rai(TEV ap9pa rwv avToiv kvkXojv. 
Hermann removes the comma and places it after ravra, understanding 
the word kvkXoq as Camerarius does. Tr. — So Dindorf and Wunder. B. 

2 The passion of Philoctetes authorises tiiis abrupt anticipation of what 
he meant to have said last. 

3 Musgrave, who admits two lines here which Brunck (see his note) re- 
jects as spurious, is obliged to attribute them to an oversight of Sophocles, 
a thoughtlessness with which, as Brunck observes, it is unreasonable to 
charge the most perfect of the ancient tragedians in this his most finished 
play. As Hermann inserts them, excusing rather than defending Sopho- 
cles, it may be proper to give them: 



1366—1381. PHILOCTETES. 335 

to join them in battle, and forcest me to this ? Nay, now, 
my son ; but, as thou hast sworn to me, convey me home, 
and do thou thyself tarrying in Scyros leave them, villains as 
they are, to perish by a death as vile. And thus wilt thou 
reap double gratitude from me, and from thy father double ; 
nor by abetting the wicked, wilt thou appear by nature to 
resemble the wicked. 

Ne. Thou speakest reasonable indeed: yet still I would 
have thee, putting faith in the gods and my words, to sail 
from this land with me thy friend. 

Ph. WTiat, to the Trojan plains, and Atreus' most hated 
son, with this wretched foot ? 

Ne. To those, however, that will cure thee and thy cor- 
rupted foot of its pain, and deliver thee from thy malady. 

Ph. thou that m^gest fearful advice^, what canst thou 
mean? 

Ne. Things^ which I see accomplishing best for me and 
thee. 

0? Tov a9\iov 
AiavQ' 07r\o)v aov Trarpbg vaTepov S'lKy 
"'EKpivav. 
Philoctetes had heard of the death of Ajax, and knowing that the arms 
were given to Ulysses, might be indignant that they were not bestowed 
on Ajax. Tr. — Wunder, who has in this instance changed his mind for 
the better, has rightly followed Brunck^ and gives ample reasons for 
doing so. As to Hermann's defence, we say, with Burges, "habeat 
secum, servetque sepulcro." B. 

^ Aeivbv alvov aivkaag, dirum, consilium dans; alveiv utique nonnun- 
quam valet suadere, hortari. ^schyl. Choeph. v. 533. aiVw hf. k^vtzhv 
Tciffde avv9i]icaQ. Idem. Supp. 187. vvv rrpofirjOeiav \af3aTv Alvu), et in 
cadem fabula, v. 1003. vfiag d' kwaivCJ ju^ KaraiaxvvHv ifis. Adde 
Hesiod. Op. et Di. v. 202. Musgrave. 

2 Brunck's assertion on this passage respecting the quantity of the 
penultima in KaXog, as used by the Attic writers, is ably supported in his 
note on the Ecclesiazusse of Aristophanes, v. 70, to which he refers: the 
following passages are there enumerated. Iph. Aul. 21. (anapsesti :) — 

TovTo ds y' eariv to koXov a(pa\ep6v. 
Eurip. Archelaus. v. incert. — 

(Tvv nvpioKTi TO. KoXa yiyyeTai Truvoig. 
Philoc. V. 1304.— 

dW ovT sfioi KoXbv rod' tariv, ovte aoi. 
See also his remarks on the constant omission of prepositions by the tran- 
scribers, Not. ad Lysistrat. v. 408. Tr. — I have translated according to 
Dindorf's emendation, \(^(r9' 6pw TtXovfieva, which, from Burges' note, 
I find is partly confirmed by two MSS. reading KaXwg. This appears 



336 PHILOCTETES. 1382—1408. 

Ph. And at saying this, hast thou no shame before the 
gods? 

Ne. No, for how should one feel shame at doing service ? 

Ph. Meanest thou this as to the Atridae service, or to me ? 

Ne. To thee surely as thy friend at least, and such my 
language proves me. 

Ph. How so, who at least art desirous of giving me up to 
mine ^enemies ? 

Ne. My friend, learn not to be fierce in misfortune. 

Ph. Thou wilt destroy me, I know thee, by these words. 

Ne. Nay, not I indeed ; but I say thou understandest not. 

Ph. I for my part know that the AtridaB have expelled 
me. 

Ne. But look, whether they will not, having cast thee out, 
again rescue thee. 

Ph. Never, with my will at least, to look on Troy. 

Ne. What then am I to do, if I shall be able to persuade 
thee on thy part by my words to nothing that I say ? For 
most easy were it for me to desist from my ad\dce, and thee 
to live, as now thou art living, without health. 

Ph. Leave me to suffer all this which I needs must suffer ; 
but what thou hast accorded me holding my right hand, to 
convey me homewards, this do for me, my son, and delay not, 
nor think any more of Troy ; for enough with loud outcries 
hath she been wailed by me^. 

Ne. If thou think proper, let us be gone. 

Ph. O thou that hast uttered a generous speech ! 

Ne. Set firmly now thy step. 

Ph. Yes, at least as far as I have strejigth. 

Ne. But how shall I escape blame from the Greeks? 

Ph. Give it not a thought. 

Ne. And what if they should desolate my country? 

Ph I being by 

Ne. Wilt do what to aid me ? 

Ph. With the arrows of Hercules 

Ne. How say est thou ? 

both ingenious and probable. Cf. ^sch. Prom. 204. lvTav9' lyu) to. 
X({)(TTa (3ov\evoJv iriOelv. The defence of koXo. will not hold good. B. 

^ Hermann reads XSyoig for yooig, which he refers to Philoctetes' impa- 
tience of any further talk on so odious a subject as Troy, and thinks it 
Jbetter suited to the present indignation of that warrior. 



1408—1431. PHILOCTETES. 337 

Ph. Will prevent them from approaching thy country*. 

Ne. Having bidden this land farewell, proceed. 

Hercules. Not yet at leasf^, ere, son of Poias, thou shalt 
hear our words, and say that with thy hearing thou hearest 
the voice of Hercules, and beholdest his aspect. But for thy 
sake I come, having quitted my throne in heaven, both to 
announce to thee the wiU of Jove, and to forbid thee the way 
whereon thou art setting out. But listen thou to my words. 
And first will I speak to thee of my fortunes', how many toils 
having laboured and gone through with I gained undying 
honour, as is before thee to see. To thee too, be well assui-ed. 
is owing to suffer this, and from troubles like these to render 
thy life glorious, But having come with this warrior to the 
town of Troy, thou first shall be cured of thy painful disease ; 
and having been chosen out of the army as the first in valour, 
thou shalt with my arrows bereave of life Paris*, the guilty 
cause of all these evils from his birth ; and shalt sack Troy, 
and send its spoils to thy halls, having taken out the noblest 
prize of merit from the host for thy father Poias by the vales 
of thy country (Eta. But whatever spoils thou shalt have 

^ Between TrtXa^eiv and (jtsixs the following words are inserted : (rijg 
ircLTpag. NE. aXX' el Sp^g Tav9\ ojffTrep avd^g, which Dindorf and 
Wander omit. I cannot see the point of omitting whatever we cannot 
understand, and refer the reader to a very learned, and somewhat satis- 
factory note of Burges, which will clearly show that these verses are 
corrupt, but not spurious. Meanwhile, the following was the translator's 
version: " Nay, my friend, if thou doest this at least as thou sayest it, 
come away, having bidden," etc. B. 

2 Nee deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus — 
Incideret. Hor. de Art. Po. v. 191. Tr. 

— " The student should here remember that the person who performs the 
part of Hercules is the same TpiTayojv'iaTrjg who acts the part of Ulysses 
and the ^vvsixiropog." Burges. B. 

3 Such is the address of Hercules to Ulysses in Hades: Od. II. 617. 

^ Hermann has a learned note here to show why fiev disjunctive is 
twice answered by re conjunctive. The two chief points of the prediction 
are, he says, the cure of Philoctetes and the sack of Troy; these should 
have been divided by fikv and SL Thus the words connected with the 
first re would be only interposed before the true apodosis. But because 
after the participle there follows something in which Paris and Troy agree, 
the original apodosis must be changed for one between Paris and Troy : 
and hence a second fikv after Paris would require a Se after Troy. This 
de is changed to re, because one and the same instrament, the bow of 
Hercules, performs, and thus conjoins, the two actions. 

Z 



838 PHILOCTETES. 1432—1459. 

gotten from this present armament, memorials of my bow and 
arrows, convey to my funeral pyre. And this is what I advise 
thee, son of Achilles ; for neither without him art thou strong 
enough to take the plain of Troy, nor he without thee. But 
like two lions, co-mates*, guard ye, he thee, thou him : and I 
will send -^sculapius* to Troy, to cure thee of thy disease. 
For the second time must it be captured by my arrows*. But 
be ye aware of this, when ye shall desolate the land, to be 
pious in your conduct towards the gods*, since Jove our sire 
accounts everything second to that, for piety never dies with 
man' ; live they, or die they, it perishes not. 

Ph. thou that hast wafted to me thy long-desired 
accents, and at length hast appeared, I will not disobey thine 
orders. 

Ne. I too side with this resolve". 

Hee. Now delay not a long time to act, for opportunity and 
this sailing breeze astern impel you. 

Ph. Come now, as I proceed will I call upon this land. 
Farewell thou abode that didst help to shelter me, and ye 
watery nymphs of the meadows, and thou manly roar of Ocean 
dashing onwards, where often within my cavern have I been 
wetted on my head in the stroke of the south wind, while 
many a groan in echo to my voice hath the Hermsean hill' 

^ This is also from Homer, II. V. 

2 This does not make Helenus a false prophet, because Neoptolemus 
had not named the future healers of Philoctetes on Helenus' authority, 
but when Helenus had predicted the cure, had of himself ascribed it to 
the most famous physicians in the army. Buttmann, however, does not 
answer Jacob rightly in every particular; for the aid of ^Esculapius could 
not be required to expel the poison of the Lemsean hydra from a foot 
which Sophocles gives us no reason to suppose the hydra had ever touched, 
and which certainly the arrows so poisoned had not. 

^ AUuding to the overthrow of Laomedon. 

^ The scholiast says that this has reference to the conduct of Neo- 
ptolemus, who slew Priam at the foot of the altar. In confirmation of 
Hercules' assertion that the gods respect piety towards them, see the 
debate of Jupiter with the other deities, as to whether he should control 
the destinies and rescue Hector. II. XXII. The retributive vengeance 
which, according to Pindar, slew Neoptolemus at the edtar, is worthy of 
remark. 

^ Wunder casts out this line as spurious, pro more. Hermann has 
more judiciously supposed that there is a lacuna. B. 

^ Titpe/jiai, int. ^Tjipov, by a common anachronism. 

' The Hennsean hill is mentioned by ^schylus, Agam. 291. 



1460—1471. PHILOCTETES. 339 

sent onwards to me tempest-tost. But now, ye foimtains, and 
thou, pui-e Lycian* stream, I quit you, even now I quit you, 
having never before reached this hope. Farewell, thou sea- 
girt plain of Lemnos, and waft me safely with fair voyage 
thither, whither mighty Fate conveys me, and the advice of 
friends, and the all-subduing deity^, that hath brought this to 



Ch. Go we now all in a body, having offered our vows to 
the ocean nymphs, that they come the protectors of our 
return^. 

^ Brunck, in his supplementary notes, reads, on the authority of the 
scholiast, Avk'lov. 'Ecttl 5e rj ovria KaXov[XBvr] Kp-qvij kv Ar}fiv(i), Avkwv 
'AiroWiovog, rj, olov kv kgrjfiiq,, virb Xvkcjv irivofievov. Musgrave pre- 
fers yXvKifiov. 

2 Aaifiwv hie dictum, ut ssepissime, de necessitate fati, quse dei cujus- 
piam voluntate constituta est, eaque re differt a caeca necessitate fatorum, 
cujus prseses est MoTpa. Herm. 

3 Brunck's note on the use of ffioTrjpag with Nvjw^aig is worthy of 
remark. Tr. — For some entertaining matter referring to the fable of 
Philoctetes, as handled by Grecian dramatists, see Burges' Preface, 
p. xii — XV. ed. Valpy. B. 



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